Gas development Tinubu’s priority – Olu Verheijen

Olu Verheijen, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, said on Wednesday that the development of gas was a priority for the President Bola Tinubu administration.

According to NAN, Verheijen said this at the opening of the “Decade of Gas” secretariat in Abuja.

“It has been a long journey with gas in this country,” she said.

The “Decade of Gas” programme is a Federal Government project designed to ensure that Nigeria propagates the supply and distribution of gas as the main source of energy both to power- and gas-based industries on commercial bases.

Verheijen said that the president placed high premium on gas and as such was committed to seeing the country utilise it to its fullest.

“We have gone from being a major exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), to looking into our future, when gas is going to play a big role in the industrialisation of our country,” she added.

Farouk Ahmed, Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said that the country was working towards becoming more of a gas-based country for local consumption and export.

“It is a matter of empowering Nigeria on the utilisation of gas, so the sponsors group agreed that there should be a secretariat.

“In the past, this project was coordinated from Shell as a sponsor group and they thought that the ideal location should be a regulator and NMDPRA being the Midstream regulator was chosen as the host of the secretariat.

“That is why we are here to commence the process of taking over and informing the former secretariat of the Energy office in Jabi,” Ahmed said.

Coordinator of the project, Mr Ed Ebong said that they were already working on about 15 different projects from the industry in the short term.