Nigeria lacks funding for gas projects despite huge reserves, says Mele Kyari

Mele Kyari, group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, says Nigeria is struggling with access to capital to develop its gas projects.

Kyari spoke on Tuesday during a panel session titled ‘Decarbonising Operations across Upstream, Midstream and Downstream’ at the 40th anniversary of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC).

The GCEO was represented by Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, executive vice-president upstream at NNPC.

He also said Nigeria faces the challenge of decarbonisation and tackling energy poverty, despite concerted efforts like the decade of gas initiative.

Kyari said despite the country’s huge gas reserves of up to 209 trillion cubic feet (tcf), “access to capital for funding gas projects has been a challenge as the balance sheet which could be easily used for raising money to fund gas projects, comes mostly from the international oil companies (IOCs), which is also largely focused on export gas”.

He called for more collaboration and transparency among parties in the global energy industry’s quest to phase out carbon emissions across the oil and gas value chain and achieve net-zero by 2050.

“Africa is currently faced with the challenge of tackling the twin problem of decarbonization and energy poverty and to deal with such challenge, Nigeria made two fundamental policy shifts to support the nation’s decarbonization process,” he said

“One is declaring the decade of gas as transition fuel from a predominantly diesel and fuel economy to a gas-driven economy, while the second is the removal of fuel subsidy. 

“NNPC Ltd has relied on these two policies to drivethe nation’s decarbonisation agenda.”

He added that as a signatory to the oil and gas decarbonisation charter (OGDC), Nigeria is focused on achieving gas flare-out by 2030 through the utilisation of gas for automotive and power generation. 

Kyari also said beyond collaboration, transparency and openness are important to bridge the gaps between all parties.

The GCEO advised against vilifying countries lagging in phasing out carbon emissions.