West Africa needs to look within her gas sector space for growth
From all indications, West Africa’s gas sector in 2018 is picking up in various activities with the development of gas pipelines, floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) platforms and major gas field projects.
With the abundance of natural gas resources across West Africa, it is expected that the region would take the quantum leap to the required economic and infrastructural development.
However report shows that across the region, countries remain chronically dependent on expensive imports of refined fuel and have failed to enjoy the benefits of gas as a cheaper and cleaner source of power.
West Africa region holds hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of natural gas under its soil, enough to power itself for decades, not to mention hundreds of billions of dollars in exports to energy hungry nations across the globe.
Those who know in the gas sector space observe that until now, high costs related to exploration and production combined with low prices, limited the economic feasibility of many natural gas projects in the regions.
They pointed out such noticed challenges are now consigned to the past as the advent of new technological developments through offshore floating liquefaction infrastructure have made the exploitation and transport of those resources much cheaper and quicker to implement.
Industry operators in their various summations maintain that deregulating the gas market and allowing market-driven gas prices is vital to unlocking further gas infrastructure investment across the region.
Recent major discoveries in Cameroon, Gabon and Senegal, added to the major reserves held by Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea have made it even more evident that natural gas is not a resource to be ignored.
Industry experts observe that it has becomes clear that West African nations must look within to make the best of the scenario in front of them. They need to look to Africa’s own market and promote the development of a natural gas-based market that could be the cornerstone of Africa’s economic growth.
It is the belief of not a few industry close watchers that a shift in the paradigm of power generation and gas utilisation across the region could spur extensive economic development and create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
To them, “the investment in natural gas fired power plants and transport infrastructure witnessed in the last few years has made the internal market for natural gas consumption grow significantly within the African domestic market”.
Reports indicate that gas-to-power projects could come a long way in addressing much of the West Africa’s electricity shortfalls, but it will also fulfil the fundamental roll of environmental protection, as it is a much cleaner source of power than diesel.
According to report, the use of natural gas would allow nations to cut down on the extremely expensive effort of importing refined oil products from other parts of the world.
KELECHI EWUZIE