The National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is looking for more export markets in Europe for Nigerian gas, the company said Sunday.
Nigeria’s revenues from crude oil have been declining due to large-scale theft and the rise of shale oil production in the US. But the OPEC member’s estimated 187 Tcf of gas reserves remain largely untapped.
NNPC CEO Andrew Yakubu said at a meeting with a Belgian business delegation in Abuja that Nigeria was hoping to use the port of Antwerp to transport its gas to the rest of Europe, according to an NNPC statement.
“Europe is a good market for gas. We are working on independently marketing our abundant gas resources to Europe,” Yakubu said.
Nigeria has the world’s ninth largest gas reserves, with about 187 Tcf of proven gas, and current production is estimated at 8.24 Bcf/day.
The West African country currently exports around 22 million mt/year of LNG the Bonny LNG plant.
However, efforts to boost domestic supply have born very little fruit with industry officials saying the low gas prices set by the government barely cover the cost of production and processing, let alone investment in gas
infrastructure.