Proven gas deposits in Nigeria have moved 206.53 trillion cubic feet, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said yesterday in Abuja.

Speaking at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, Director of DPR, Auwalu Sarki disclosed that indigenous oil and gas companies are now contributing as much as 33 per cent to the nation’s crude oil reserves and about 30 per cent of gas reserves.

While the companies contribution to the reserves was less than 10 million barrels in 2005, it has grown significantly to about 62 million barrels in 2020.

Speaking on the gas reserves, Auwalu attributed the growth to recent efforts being made on gas exploration in the country, especially the “Decade of Gas Initiative’.

The Nigerian government had last year put Nigeria’s total gas reserves at 203.16 trillion cubic feet (TCF), representing a marginal increase of 1.16tcf or 0.57 per cent from the 202tcf recorded in 2019. The recent increase implies a growth of over 3 trillion.

“Nigeria attained the target of 200tcf of natural gas reserves by the Reserve Declaration as at Jan.1, 2019, before the 2020 target
“Thereafter, government set a target to attain a Reserve Position of 2020tcf by 2030,” Auwalu said.

He noted that independent companies are driving value addition to gas, adding that acquisition of divested assets as well as accelerated appraisal and development efforts are other driving factors.

To him, the country is already gaining from the deliberate national efforts to boost indigenous participation in the sector.
The Chairman of Nigeria Gas Association and Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Gas, Ed Ubong, who spoke at the event said  gas only accounts for 5 per cent of Africa energy mix.
“Nigeria is sitting on a large, huge resource base of gas, but how much gas are we producing? We are a top ten country when we talk of what we have but when you talk of what we are actually producing we begin to sit back, we are in the top 20 range.

“The gas development in Nigeria has a number of positives, over the last 30 years, we have doubled our domestic gas consumption and moved from about 200 and today in the domestic market we have close to 1.2pcf of gas flowing every day, he stated.

Earlier at the event, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva had said there was need for the industry to move beyond ‘lips service’ on gas development.

“I want to see a holistic roadmap and action plan that provides the appropriate leverage for the way forward in delivering the Decade of Gas vision.

The critical milestone that must be achieved should be clearly stated with short, medium and long term strategies”, the Minister said at the end of the four day event.