With over 186.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves, Nigeria has Africa’s largest gas reserves and accounts for about 2.8 per cent of the world’s total gas reserves. This also places the country the ninth largest globally.
According to a report on investment climate released to Daily Sun yesterday, the natural gas reserves are made of approximately 49 per cent associated and 51 per cent non-associated located offshore and on shore.
“There is a gross potential of 11, 250 MW of large hydro power plants with only approximately 17 per cent harnessed. Likewise, only about 2 per cent of the resources have been harnessed. Solar radiation intensity ranged from 4.0 kWh2/day in the south to 6.5kWh/m2/day in the north. Wind speed varies between 2m/s and 4m/s across the country with the lower speed experienced in the hinterland while the higher speed is experienced in coastal areas and the far north part of the country. Biomass potential also exist in the form of fuelwood, crop residues and municipal waste, arable land that can be used to cultivate energy crops. These resources can be harnessed to provide sustainable energy for the country” the document, said.
While launching the document at a National Energy Summit in Abuja, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Ogbonnaya Onu hinged job creation to sustainable power. He advocated the deployment of science and technology towards solving the energy problem.
“The most important thing is that Nigerian has enormous resources. But what we need to do is to put in science and technology innovation. For example, I just came back from University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) where refuse is converted into electricity. That is the point I am making about science and technology. So, we have recognised that we have to add knowledge so as to add value to the resources we have. We can solve the energy problem, the power problem that we have in the country. For us to ensure that we have enough jobs for our people we must power industrialisation. This is really where the summit can play a very important role. Within the Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN) we believe very strongly that the future is bright.
In his remarks, the Director General of ECN, Dr E. J Bala, noted that to solve Nigeria’s energy problem, de-risking is key. “Certainly, de-risking is very essential particularly in developing the sustainable energy mix. You have to be competitive and to be competitive you have to de-risk some of the issues.
Sunnews