Gasco Marine Limited targets 3 regions for its gas expansion business

Lagos-based Gasco Marine Limited says it is targeting 3 regions for its gas expansion business.

This is according to a statement released by the company this week. In the statement, Gasco Marine said it is extending its CNG delivery capacity in areas with no gas access in the South-west, South-south, and Northern regions, delivering gas to businesses in the power, industrial and haulage sectors.

The company says it has acquired new 100% compressed natural gas (CNG) fueled trucks for this purpose. Gasco Marine says it made the acquisition in order to further deepen penetration and accelerate the utilization of natural gas in Nigeria.

Perspective: In 2020, the federal government introduced the decade of gas in Nigeria, also launching the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), which focuses on making use of natural gas for industrialization, cooking, enhanced power supply, and transportation. The implementation of the NGEP is still ongoing as confirmed by the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources to Nairametrics in October 2022.

According to Gasco Marine, the purchase of the fleet of CNG buses is timely and intentional and is in line with the company’s commitment to help reduce carbon emissions and promote the immense benefits of natural gas in Nigeria. The company also said its gas implementation drive is in line with the natural gas adoption goal highlighted in Nigeria’s energy transition plan.

In the African Economic Outlook (AEO) from the African Development Bank (AfDB), natural gas is identified as a transition fuel that will be needed as a part of Africa’s future energy mix, for several reasons, mostly the need to bridge existing energy access gaps.

African countries have over 600 trillion cubic feet of proven natural gas reserves, with a lot of focus on Nigeria, Algeria, Mozambique, Senegal, Mauritania, and Tanzania. The outlook also states that natural gas power plants will be needed in Africa to support the baseload, provide reserves, and balance the grid. As highlighted in the AEO, African countries will need new technologies, management systems, and finance to develop and integrate their natural gas resources, to drive their industrial transformation.

For the record: According to information from the Office of the Vice President, Nigeria’s energy transition plan is focused on Nigeria’s gas potential which will be harnessed for industrialization.

• Nigeria has over 206 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of proven reserves and an additional 600 TCF scope to be proven. So, it is evident that what makes sense from the point of balancing energy security with environmental sustainability is the use of gas as a transition fuel.
• During an interview on COP 27 TV in Egypt during the climate conference in November 2022, Dr. Muntaqa said Nigeria is confronted with a dual crisis; energy poverty and the reality and consequence of climate change manifesting in real-time. So, Nigeria is demanding and modeling bold action with its energy transition plan.

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