From Uche Usim, Abuja
Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, on Thursday, charged stakeholders in the sector to close ranks and work towards gas optimisation as Nigeria’s 600 tcf of gas remains meaningless unless harnessed.
Sylva stated this in Abuja at the final day of the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS). The Minister stated that when the Decade of Gas conference was launched earlier in March, the message to the global oil and gas community was that Nigeria was ready to utilise its natural gas resources to drive industrial development.
“At the heart of this administration is the vision to drive infrastructure and industrial development of the country in order to prosper the citizens and make life more meaningful to all. Natural gas ticks all the boxes as the vehicle to help government achieve the aspiration and that is why we embraced the resource to help turn around the economy.
“To demonstrate that we are indeed committed to our vision, the Decade of Gas has now become an integral part of Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS).
“Nigeria’s natural gas reserves stand at 203TCF with potential estimated at 600TCF. So what? Personally, I am tired of reeling out these statistics. They are meaningless without any action to bring meaningful development. “From the feedback I got, stakeholders and the Nigerian people are fully in support of government’s Natural Gas Agenda and the quest to use the resource to turn this country around. We cannot afford to let the people down. We cannot afford any delay. And we need to hit the iron while it is red hot. I want to believe that the roadmap and action plan to deliver on the expectations of a gas-powered economy by 2030 developed from the earlier meeting is part of the agenda for this session”, he said.