The Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, says the Federal Government is currently working to grow the country’s gas reserve from 206 trillion cubic feet to 600 TCF.

Sylva gave the assurance on Wednesday at the 23rd World Petroleum Congress in Houston, Texas, U.S.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the minister spoke at a session themed ” Regional Development and Opportunities in Africa”.

He said the increase would position Nigeria among the countries with the highest gas reserves in the world.

According to him, the 600 trillion cubic feet reserve will enable Nigeria to achieve the desired development required of a gas nation.

“We have a lot of gas in Nigeria. We currently have 206 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves.

“This number is already discovered in gas reserves and the 206 trillion cubic feet reserve were discovered while looking for oil; so it was accidentally discovered.

“We were actually going to look for crude oil and we found gas, and in that process of accidental discovery of gas, we have found about 206 tcf.

“So, the belief is that if we really aim to look for gas dedicatedly, we will find up to 600 trillion cubic feets of gas,” the minister said.

Sylva said that the forum provided an opportunity to share accomplishments and incentives within the industry which enhance Nigeria’s investment value preposition.

He explained that so far, gas was being used as a transition fuel as Nigeria and Africa as a continent do not contribute more than one per cent as carbon emission aggravating the global warming situation.

He said: “The future of oil and gas industry in Nigeria is still very bright when we talk about energy transition, we are not expected that oil will be discarded the next day.

” We are saying that over the years, oil will account for less and less percentage in the global energy mix.

” It means that oil is still going to be relevant but it will not to be as relevant as it is today, but it not going to happen just now.

“It’s going to happen years to come, so there is still a lot of opportunities in growing the oil industry.

“That’s why we are here to collaborate with the rest of the global community to develop oil industry.

“We’ve never discountenance that the world is serious about energy transition.”

He added that Net-Zero target proposed by Mr President Muhammadu Buhari during the COP-26 conference required sustained financial assistance.

He said that technology transfer and capacity building from international partners willing and able to assist in that regard would be welcome.

The minister added that Nigeria still required fossil fuels, especially gas, as its base-pad energy source to address energy poverty and power supply in the country.

READ ALSO: Cooking Gas Price Jumps By 240% As Marketers Halt Imports

“We have declared gas as our transition fuel, our pathway to net-zero carbon emissions. This presents investment opportunities given the oil and gas reserves which can be commercialised,” he noted.

Sylva said that despite the challenges and impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on the nation’s economy in general, and to the oil and gas industry in particular amid global energy transition drive, the Nigeria oil industry still held profound opportunities.

The minister said that discussion had commenced with Afrexim Bank to create an energy bank which will finance fossil fuel projects in Nigeria and Africa continent.

He said this had become necessary because of the stance of the international financial ecosystem on funding fossil fuel projects.