Oredola Adeola

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd. has revealed that its transition from traditional role as a major oil company to a key player in the gas sector, is deliberately pivoted towards utilizing gas for power generation and fostering industrialization.

Mrs. Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, NNPC Ltd.’s Executive Vice President, Upstream, disclosed this during a Panel Session at the ongoing 2024 CERAWeek Conference in Houston, the United States, on Tuesday.

Olufemi Soneye, NNPC Ltd.  Chief Corporate Communications Officer made this known in a statement obtained by Advisors Reports on Wednesday.

Eyesan, whose session addressed the theme “What are the Choices for Upstream Strategies?” said Nigeria is a predominantly gas-rich country which boasts over 200TCF of gas that can be leveraged for the country’s industrialisation and economic development.

She noted that NNPC Ltd. plans to deepen gas utilisation domestically for industrialization and, ensuring that the entire country feels and optimises the use of the resource.

She said the Company is vigorously opening avenues for infrastructural gas development through various gas projects spread across the country.

“Our focus is how do we move from a predominantly oil player to a gas player and, not just for gas for the sake of gas but gas for power generation, and for industrialisation, “she stated.

Eyesan observed that NNPC Ltd. is also focused on emission reduction and gas flare-out. “We want to capture all gas flared, utilise it and for domestic use and ultimately increase our energy transition footprint,” she said.

“NNPC Ltd. is keying into the government agenda of using gas as a transition fuel, and for us, we want to ensure not only the domestic gas market, but we also expand that to the region and internationally,” she said.

While calling on African countries to collaborate with one another in order to ensure even distribution of energy resources, Eyesan said collaboration is key as not all countries within the sub-region are endowed with equal proportions of energy resources.

“For us to ensure that we continue to subsist within the sub-region, we must be willing to work collaboratively and ensure that there is an even distribution of the energy resources we have across the sub-region.”

On energy transition, Eyesan stated that the subject has evolved over the years, adding that for Sub-Saharan Africa, the narrative has been on how to address the energy poverty issue, while for Nigeria, the NNPC Ltd. will continue to look at areas where it has the competitive advantage to define the strategy.

Other energy experts on the panel are the Chief Upstream Strategist, Energy, S&P Global Commodity Insights, Bob Fryklund; the President of Pathways Alliance, Kendall Dilling; and the Executive Vice President, Exploration and Production International, Equinor, Philippe Mathieu.