Africa Energy

With the natural gas extracted from underground coming in a gaseous state, it is somewhat amazing that much of what is produced by Nigeria has so far left the country in liquid form. Interesting, too, that the form of gas with which the local consumer is most likely to come into direct contact is also liquid, and comes in bottles. The former is...

It has been a long pipeline – and Nigeria’s Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) is not quite at the end of it yet. Just how long depends on definition. It was back in 2000 that Nigeria’s fledgling democratic government set up the Oil and Gas Reform Implementation Committee (OGIC) with a mandate to overhaul the country’s hydrocarbons legislation, replacing...

The Nigerian oil industry has stepped up efforts to reduce the flaring of gas in recent years, with private sector investments paying dividends. Cutting down on flaring, which is economically improvident and environmentally damaging, goes hand-in-hand with the development of infrastructure to process natural gas.

A large endowment of water has been both Nigeria’s blessing and its curse. A nationwide network of perennial and seasonal rivers, inland lakes, ponds and coastal lagoons allow for easy access to 267.3bn cu metres of surface water, complemented by over 51.9bn cu metres of groundwater resources, according to the Nigerian National Planning Commission....

In June 2009, when Nigeria’s late President Umaru Yar’Adua offered an amnesty to the gun-toting militants of the country’s main oil producing region, the Niger Delta, many pundits were sceptical. Happily, they have been proved wrong, at least so far.

Aspiring to join the ranks of the world’s top-20 economies by 2020, Nigeria’s growth trajectory is currently being impeded by one thing above all others: its small and dated electric power system. Government officials are aware of this, however, and solutions are high on the national “to-do” list, with some remedies already well in progress.