Jonathan Unveils Gas Agenda for Power, Industrialisation Thursday

By Ejiofor Alike

21 Mar 2011

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke

Five months after the Federal Government launched the power sector roadmap, President Goodluck Jonathan will on Thursday unveil his gas revolution agenda to ensure greater availability of gas for power generation and also reposition the country as the undisputed regional hub for gas-based industries.

Briefing journalists Sunday in Abuja, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said the president had a strong vision and passion to re-industrialise Nigeria, using the country’s vast natural gas resources.

She said the combination of industrial investment agenda to be launched by Jonathan on Thursday would also include a world scale petrochemical plant, two fertiliser plants, five fertiliser blending plants, a methanol plant and a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) distribution plant.

The minister was optimistic that the industrialisation agenda would not only form the catalysts for a major re-industrialisation of Nigeria, but would also, in one swoop, result in the most significant inflow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) of over $10 billion between 2012 and 2014 when all the plants would be operational.

She said the petrochemical value chain was known as a major creator of employment, stressing that on the Federal Government’s planned investment in the 1.3 million tonne per annum capacity petrochemical plant, over 200,000 direct and indirect jobs would be created.

“The delivery of the fertiliser plants agenda is strategically coordinated to enable strong linkage with the agricultural sector, creating an agricultural revolution enabling millions of Nigerians access to affordable food. More importantly however is the explosion in employment creation that will arise from the boost in agricultural productivity and related agro and food processing industries that will emerge,” she said.

The minister also said Jonathan believed that Nigeria’s 187 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas resource qualifies her to be a world class player in the global gas business.

“The agenda will necessitate an unprecedented growth in our gas supply, from the current one billion cubic feet per day to over 10 billion cubic feet per day by 2020. Realising this growth calls for a radical review of how the nationwide gas potential is harnessed,” she said.

She noted that in order to grow the gas sector at the required pace, the government had embarked on the strategic development of various inland basins, in addition to the Niger Delta and offshore basins.

According to her, between April 2010, when Jonathan launched an aggressive refocus on the various basins and now, about 531 square kilometres of seismic data had been acquired in the Chad basin, while $1 billion would be used on further data acquisition, aeromagnetic surveys, exploration and appraisal drilling in Chad, Gongola/Yola, Sokoto and Anambra Basins, as well as Benue Trough in the next five years.

“By enhancing the propensity of these basins, we hope to build a significant supply bases across the various geographical zones that complement the existing gas supply centres in the Niger Delta. Based on this, our current pipeline infrastructure, which is anchored around the Calabar-Ajaokuta-Kano line, will be further complemented by a network of additional spur lines originating from these new supply centres in the inland basin enhancing the growth of local supply and consumption. This will greatly accelerate industrialisation across the country,” she added.

The minister disclosed that the gas pipeline was estimated to cost $2 billion, adding that focus on its rapid delivery was ongoing.

She also said for the first time in several years, the country was in a position of net surplus in gas availability relative to the requirements of the power sector in the short term.

The minister said the country had about 150 million cubic feet per day surplus supply potential, adding that this could add 500 megawatts of electricity to the current generating capacity on the national grid.

“Based on our ongoing supply development effort, we expect to have over 2.5 billion cubic feet per day of gas supply destined specifically to the power sector, supporting significant additional capacity by 2014. By 2020, we would be looking at a supply capacity of about 10 billion cubic feet per day for the power sector, in line with Mr. President’s target for 20:2020 of 40,000 megawatts,” she added.

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