Financial Energy Review
…..gas as transition fuel will contribute 30 percent as source of energy in Nigeria for 2O years…..
………..by Ben Ndubuwa……
The Project Manager, Upstream Operation, Sahara Group, Wole Ajeigbe, has said that the International Oil Companies’ (IOCs) in Nigeria divestment from onshore and other deep water operations are room and space for indigenous companies.
Ajeigbe advised that it is time for the indigenous firms to step in and become a driving force and take over. “There’s a lot of experience. Nigeria’s been in this industry for probably since independence, 60 years. So we’ve built a lot of capability, indigenous capability. And it’s our time for that indigenous capability to come to the fore and show that they can take this industry forward” he said.
Speaking at the maiden edition of the Asherami Square organized by the Sahara Group in Lagos, with the theme ‘Carbon Footprint and The African Narrative’ Ajeigbe said that for Sahara Group have enough experience and have leant a lot in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry and this has so far positioned Group to be a driving force, behind Africa’s quest energy independent.
Ajeigbe said in his paper titled ‘Carbonizing Africa’s Post-Climate Operations’ that Sahara Group in its upstream operation in terms of resource volume, has about seven billion barrels of crude oil in their seven upstream assets within Nigeria. “We have some outside Nigeria” he said.
According to him Sahara has begun arrangements towards achieving zero carbon emissions from its upstream operations by the year 2060. Adding that Sahara Group is building a sustainable energy future with an ambitious but pragmatic approach to its upstream carbon net zero journey.
Ajeigbe pointed out that the net zero plan by Sahara Group would be achieved gradually by reducing and minimising carbon emissions on a yearly basis. According to him the company already has some gas commercialisation projects which are expected to be completed between 2025 and 2026.
He said Strategies being deployed by Sahara to achieve this include elimination of gas flare across its upstream operations; reduction in freshwater usage during operation; Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage among others.
The Project Manager further gave an outlook of Africa future energy usage. He said that looking at the next 20 years, oil and gas are going to be the dominant energy source in Africa. For instance 30 percent will be from natural gas and about from 17 to 24 percent from renewables. Though the usage of renewables are growing and they are growing at the fastest rate, 1.4 percent to be to about 20 percent in 20 years.
“Coal, reduction as well, which in a sense is good. While nuclear grows a little bit. So what we’re seeing here is that, of course renewables today, even in Nigeria, are the fastest growing. A lot of growth is coming also in the natural gas space, because for us in Africa, we believe that’s going to be the transition fuel, right? To be able to get to that next level. We cannot move from where we are today to zero without going through a transition phase.
“In Africa, we need that. I think the world, the outside world, the conditions are hard enough for people to transition. So they can be talking about net zero, net zero in the next 10, 20 years or thereabouts. “But for us, there has to be a transition. And so natural gas presents an opportunity. It’s been said it’s a cleaner burning fuel” he said.
