Whereas the key problem frustrating Nigeria’s growth in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) has been lack of adequate gas process infrastructure, neighbouring Equatorial Guinea with massive gas processing facilities are set to approach Nigeria for partnership.
This was the revelation of the Nigerian Ambassador to the country, Alhaji Toko Ali Gongulong in an interview with Channels TV in Malabo recently.
He said before the end of the year, officials of the country will arrive Abuja for talks on the process of piping gas from oil-rich Niger Delta to the Equatorial Guinea gas processing plants for exports.
The new gas development idea is coming as Nigeria’s crude oil and condensates production has risen to 2.323 million barrels per day (bpd), exceeding the 2019 budget benchmark of 2.3 million bpd.
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, who spoke in Abuja on Tuesday while receiving in audience, the national officials of the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ), said Monday’s crude oil output figure was a significant improvement from the average daily production of 2.1 million barrels recorded last year.
Baru further averred that the corporation had recorded significant growth in its gas output, noting that it has grown the country’s gas production from about 450 million standard cubic feet (scf/pd) to about 1.5 billion SCF/pd currently.
He said officials of the state run oil firm are now negotiating foreign direct investments (FDI) for the petroleum industry to the tune of $7 billion, a significant improvement from the $3.6 billion recorded in 2017.
NNPC chief revealed that the feat become possible on a number of factors including the seriousness deployed since his emergence as the chief executive of the NNPC, saying “Since we came in July 2016, we had been focused on increasing production of oil and gas and condensates. At some point, our national combined production was about a million barrels; I am happy that as at the end of 2018, we have moved on, averaging last year, about 2.1 million barrels”.
