Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, said the implementation of the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) will create twelve million direct and indirect jobs across the country.

 In a statement issued today by the Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation to the Minister, Mr. Justice Derefaka, Sylva made the assertion at the recently concluded Ministerial Mandate Performance Scorecard Review Session. His words:

“In terms of impact, the NGEP will create over 12 million direct and indirect jobs and human capacity development nationwide.

“I, hereby declare NGEP as the flagship programme of the ministry based on the outstanding work the committee is doing.

“I have surrendered my vehicles to the NGEP to convert all to dual fuel with use of either Auto Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) or Auto Condensed Natural Gas (CNG).

“And on that premise, I now have the moral standing to direct that all Chief Executive Officers and their able lieutenants do same by converting all their official vehicles to run on autogas.”

According to the minister, this will show to the Nigerian people that the government was serious when it declared this year “The Year of Gas.”

Other programmes initiated to boost gas usage in the country include the Nigeria Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) and flag-off of the National Gas Transportation Network Code (NGTNC).

Sylva who explained that it also includes the ongoing Marginal Field Bid Round, flag-off of the construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline and Committee on Gas Sector-Wide Review of the Domestic Gas Pricing Framework added that the programmes and activities are geared towards achieving the mandate handed over by Mr. President and he hoped that the programmes and activities will be driven to a logical conclusion.

Also speaking, Dr Abner Ishaku, Technical Adviser, Downstream to the Petroleum Minister, explained that the promotion of gas as replacement fuel will also save the nation the much-needed Forex expended on imported fuels and noted that it would provide alternatives to Premium Motor Spirit, Automotive Gas Oil and Dual Purpose Kerosene for Nigerians.

Technical Adviser on Gas Business and Policy Implementation to the Minister also said the initiatives were geared towards making Nigeria the hub of gas production and utilisation on the African continent, in addition to optimising the nation’s enormous gas potential. His words:

“The world is gradually turning away from crude oil to gas to drive their economies. Our collective efforts should be putting all machineries in place to make gas a critical catalyst to our economic development.

“The approach should include the diversification of our economy, efficient management of revenues, commitment to local value addition in the gas industry.

“In the long run, a sustained decline in the price of oil may not be a bad thing for Nigeria as this may push us to diversify our economy using gas and away from dependence on oil.”

Derefaka, who is also the programme Manager, NGFCP further stressed that Nigeria ought to use gas and invest in critical sectors of the economies such as education, health, infrastructure and agriculture, noting that, this will provide a solid base for industrialisation, local value addition, economic development and sustainable growth.

Derefaka pinpointed to the fact that gas has a leading role as a key enabler to the diversification and growth of Nigeria’s broader economy through sufficient power generation, provision of feedstock for value-adding manufacturing, and improved government revenue from LNG.