Why gas is dominant energy of future

MD/CEO, Nigeria LNG Limited, Babs Omotowa

By Oluwagbenga Bankole

It is certainly not wrong to say that the 21st Century is looking increasingly set to be dominated by natural gas; this is because the usage of gas worldwide is increasing daily globally.   

Between 1980 and 2010, global consumption of dry natural gas rose from 53 trillion cubic feet (Tcf) to 113 Tcf. Although consumption in North America saw the slowest regional growth in percentage terms (29%) from 1980 to 2010, the region accounted for more than 25% of the world’s natural gas consumption during all years in the period. The Middle East had the highest growth rate, increasing more than ten-fold from 1.3 Tcf in 1980 to 13.2 tcf in 2010.

According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria gas consumption is expected to increase from1.71 billion cubic feet to 5.4 billion per day by 2019.

Speaking at the just concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas conference, MD/CEO, Nigeria LNG Limited, Babs Omotowa said that world population will reach 9billion by 2050, mostly in developing nations, adding that it will raise demand for energy, and not just any type, but cleaner energy. He disclosed that gas is the fastest growing energy source at close to three per cent growth per year.

Omotowa disclosed that the biggest usage of gas is electricity, adding that it is also used as a fuel of choice for cooking, heating and transportation. He however said that its usage provide most significant value, especially in the petrochemical industries.

“Many experts described Nigeria as more of a gas resource base than oil province which is good since gas is dominant future energy. The critical gas to power has been increased 1bcf/day. Also on domestic, industries such as Eleme petrochemical are growing. On export, NLNG has been contributing to the economy and for example paid $1.3bln CIT into the federation account last year which is 5% revenue, Omotowa said.”

He noted that; “it is now several decades that we have become aware of the potential 600tcf unproven gas reserves. With the high value that gas brings, the country will benefit from a renewed aggressive exploration and development program to move these to proven gas reserves and subsequently to production.”

He revealed that an accelerated development program for our gas revolution will require government policies, fiscals and enabling environment that will attract foreign direct investment and technical support, especially as many of these findings are in the more technically challenging offshore locations.

He also said that this can enable us by 2020 to be producing an additional 3bcf/day as well as also working to capture further the current gas flaring of still over 1bcf/day.

Similarly, the Minister of Power Professor Chinedu Nebo said that gas undoubtedly is the prime resource as fuel for electricity supply industry in Nigeria. He noted that people think and talk about Nigeria as an oil producing country, but if we want to be really technical about the terminology in regard to oil and gas, Nigeria is a gas country.

He disclosed that gas gives almost 80% of electricity in Nigeria, adding that we can’t talk about electricity in Nigeria without mentioning gas.

Nebo described the contribution of gas in generating electricity in Nigeria as overwhelming, revealing that there is enough gas to give Nigeria 5500MW if the pipelines are not vandalized.

Nebo said that the gas master plan of the federal government needs the support of the private sector and the master plan cannot be executed alone by the government.