Linking West Africa’s gas resources with the right infrastructure

West Africa is relatively underexplored for hydrocarbons. This is true for even the established producers such as Nigeria as not a few gas fields that are not associated with established oilfields in the country have yet to be developed.

Figures put Nigeria’s natural gas reserves at an estimated 180 trillion cubic feet (Tcf).

A look at global gas value chains indicate that resources and infrastructure are inextricably linked as supplies move from field to market. To a large extent, West Africa’s resources have not been well-developed because of a lack of infrastructure to attain either export markets or internal customers.

Reports indicate that West Africa countries have emerged as an important supplier of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to the world, with natural gas production increasing by more than 5 Tcf or 42 percent.

West Africa benefits from the trends of advanced technology and exploration in deeper water as advanced technologies and creative production schemes in deep waters of the Gulf of Guinea off western coast near the equator is responsible for that region’s emergence as a major hydrocarbon supplier to the world.

Industry watchers observe that infrastructure investment plans in neighbouring countries may bring unintended benefits.

They opine that if Nigeria, for instance, pursues the mega Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline project, a 4,300-kilometer-pipeline that they have seriously been considered for the last five years, Mali may be able to access this pipeline conveyance if natural gas is discovered.

To them, gas exploration will yield supplies for export as gas is needed for the region economic development as well.

Analysts maintain that the case for home-grown markets for West Africa’s own resources is most poignant with respect to natural gas. With the regions’ prevailing darkness, a testament to both inadequate and poorly utilized electric power systems and the brilliant flashes of light as natural gas is flared in the key producing countries which is a priority for many West African governments and companies for environmental and economic reasons.

They are of the view that both domestic and regional infrastructure will be required to achieve gas flaring reductions and provide more productive and efficient exploitation of natural gas into the future.

For years, associated gas production was flared in Nigeria for lack of domestic and export markets. LNG and pipeline projects offer large export potential, but countries like Nigeria now look at natural gas as an engine of domestic economic growth and political stability as well.

The West Africa Gas Pipeline will bring gas that is currently flared from Nigeria to Benin, Togo and Ghana. The recipient countries must finalize regulatory frameworks that will facilitate investment in gas-fired power generation as well as industrial applications.

West Africa suffers from acute electricity shortages, and many band-aid solutions such as small-scale diesel or dual-fired generators and demand-side management projects are used to make up the difference, usually at much higher cost or greater negative impact. Large, regionally coordinated, combined-cycle gas-fired power plants could ship electricity practically anywhere in the West Africa region through a regional grid envisaged by the West Africa Power Pool.

KELECHI EWUZIE