06 September 2013, Abuja – The Federal Government, Thursday, said the level of gas flaring in the country has been reduced to 20 per cent over the last two years.
Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, Minister of Petroleum Resources, who disclosed this at the plenary session of the 19th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, stated that a further reduction is expected in the years ahead. She said the series of gas projects including the oncoming petrochemical and fertilizer plants would take up a bulk of the gas currently flared thereby reducing gas flare and the harm it does to the environment.
She disclosed that the government was positioning the oil and gas sector, to ensure that Nigeria controlled 10 per cent of the global fertilizer market by 2017, especially as the bulk of the fertilizer companies are expected to come on stream by then.
She identified some of the proposed fertilizer plants as Dangote Petrochemical and Fertilizer Plant to be built at Olokola, Indorama Fertilizer Plant at Eleme, Brass Fertilizer Company at Brass, Nagarjuna Fertilizer Plant at Ogidigben, and another plant by the International Fertilizer Association.
According to her, the need to get the gas sector to drive growth in all sectors of the economy, especially the agricultural sector, necessitated the excision of some key areas of the Gas Master Plan from the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, for accelerated implementation under the Gas Revolution Agenda.
She noted that the programme has begun to yield dividends with plans for the establishment of a number of the new fertilizer plants at advanced stage.
Alison-Madueke explained that the thrust of the two-pronged policy of gas-to-power and gas-to-industries is to drive linkages between the power and industrial sectors with the agricultural sector serving as a key player in the industrial sector on account of its enormous job creation potentials and multiplier effect in the economy.
– Michael Eboh, Vanguard