CHEVRON Nigeria Limited has invested over $1 billion (N147 billion) on energy flare control projects in Niger Delta, its Managing Director, Mr. Andrew Farthrop, has said.
Farthrop made the disclosure when he presented a paper on "Chevron and Delta State Green Economy Partnership Initiative" in Asaba, Delta State, during a stakeholder' forum tagged, "Development of Low Carbon Economy and Climate Change".
According to him, Chevron currently working on 15 projects, three of which are related to capturing gas flared that will be either used in Nigeria or in Economic Community of West African States area.
"We have on this project alone, sunk more than $1 billion in and around Delta state that is around salaries and services to be provided. We know that every time we spent money here it gets to be spent again two or three times before it returns to the bank, so we are conscious of the environment and the people.
"We are currently working on fifteen projects, three of them are related to capturing gas flared, it will be either used in Nigeria or Ecowas area and all of it is for energy," he said.
He explained that the new project in the area is being designed with zero routine flaring with infrastructure in place to send back gas into the market.
"We need to keep gas pipeline flowing. This initiative to improve and protect the environment is essential at this time, we need to reduce the gas flaring, use the gas more efficiently," he added.
Fawtrhop noted that the Escravos is currently being rebuilt from what was destroyed in 2003/2004, towards infrastructure that would bring green economy, adding that Chevron is constructing the first phase of the power plant that will use gas from the area, also using ECOWAS link with the hope to send some of the gas into Nigeria market and other areas that will be economic benefit partnership for the country.
He said the offshore project would be completed in another two or three months through the Escravos gas project.
Other economic activities, he said, include the new Warri port, which has been revitalised by the needs of the large project going on, while the state is also building more projects that will enable more trade and commerce in the state and Nigeria as a whole.
However, issue of security, he described as something that required a more proactive approach to maintain and move forward faster than its current state.
"If we continue to work with the Federal Government on the terms of agreement, we can cover more and more gas projects in this area we need to work together on this cooperation security.
"We have some research and technical capabilities and I expect that we will build on that partnership by which we can bring some of that expertise and work with the Delta state government to improve some of the issue, he added.
Speaking on the local content initiative of the federal government, he said there should be additional input such as community content.
The Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Group Managing Director, Mr. Mohamed Barkindo said that the huge demand for gas had influenced government's decision as the seventh largest producer of same in the world to project about 3.5 billion ECM per day.
The estimation he said will cover the power sector for the next forty five years from now that will boost industrial growth.
He said: " Nigeria is a big gas company and the seventh largest producer of it in the world, the demand for gas had our projection, it's a growth for power and gas based industries.
For the power sector we are planning that we should be able to produce 3.5 billion ecm per day to support the power sector in 45 years and for the gas based industry."
Also, petrochemical and ethanol, already had 48 investors that have applied for gas and 150 ecm is planned for this sector in the next 24 years.
Meanwhile, towards low carbon economy has suggested the imbibing practice of low energy consumption, low pollution low emission and high efficient clean energy utilization.
"It requires conscious effort at reducing waste and converting same to power utilisation.
NNPC strategy towards low carbon economy- Currently, the industry is carrying out a low carbon project activities, mainly on gas to power project, power generation, gas to liquid supplying the industrial market for energy, supply to domestic and residential areas as well as transportation sector," he expressed.
Source:© Copyright Guardian
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