“Stakeholders’ collaboration at 2025 conference will advance Nigeria’s goals ” – Izuora, Publisher, Oriental News
Oredola Adeola
STANMEG Communications, organiser of the Oriental News Nigeria National Conference, has announced that Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) will deliver the keynote address at the fourth edition of the event, scheduled to take place on July 24 in Lagos.
The largest consumer and exporter of natural gas in Africa, and other key stakeholders, are also expected to discuss harnessing Nigeria’s vast gas resources to achieve sectoral targets.
STANMEG Communications, publishers of Oriental News Nigeria Online, in a statement obtained by Advisors Reports, announced that the conference will hold on July 24 at 9 a.m. at Radisson Blu Hotel, Ikeja GRA, Lagos, with the theme: “Integrating Nigeria’s Gas Potentials into Strategic Energy Transition Initiatives.”
The sub-themes, are, “Enhancing Energy Security and Efficiency Through Effective Gas Utilization”; “Evaluating Regulatory Frameworks for Sustainable CNG Adoption in Nigeria’s Transportation Industry”; and “Building Local Content Synergy’ between the Insurance Industry and Oil and Gas Sector”.
The NLNG, as keynote speaker at the conference would highlight benefits of gas as the country’s transition energy source.
Mrs. Yemisi Izuora, Publisher/Editor, Oriental News Nigeria, giving an overview of the conference, stated that meeting Nigeria’s domestic energy needs remains one of the most significant challenges to sustainable development and economic growth.
According to her, “Only half of Nigeria’s 200 million citizens currently have access to energy, and with the population set to double by 2050 universal access is a huge challenge.
She said, “Nigeria has proposed to ramp up gas production, utilization and export, with the aims of supporting industrialization, boosting domestic energy supply (for power, cooking and transport), and increasing government revenues.
“Whether ramping up gas utilization is feasible, or indeed the appropriate approach to achieving Nigeria’s energy supply and economic ambitions, is uncertain,” Izuora said.
The Publisher further noted that the 2025 Oriental News Nigeria conference, is bringing key industry figures, experts and policy analysts to evaluate various aspects of natural gas initiatives put together to drive the national economy.
She said, ” The Nigerian Government is aware that what is certain is that global pressure to transition away to cleaner energies and defund fossil fuel projects complicates the process of realizing that goal and could lead to wasted investments that jeopardize the economic and energy security of Nigerians in the future.
“But weak legal and regulatory frameworks, big infrastructure gaps, a non-cost-reflective pricing regime and host community conflicts have made the domestic gas sector uncompetitive and unattractive to investors.
“This, in turn, has left gas reserves underexploited, especially more expensive non-associated gas which represents half of Nigeria’s reserves.
“Implementation of reforms by successive governments through the 2008 Gas Master Plan the (GMP), the 2017 National Gas Policy (NGP) and other instruments have proven slow.
“With the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, the legal, fiscal and regulatory framework of the gas sector has been strengthened with the creation of dedicated regulators, a dedicated minister, provision of third-party access to infrastructure, and other improvements. But many gaps remain.
“Thus, the Decade of Gas Policy launched in 2021 to address the limitations to achieving domestic gas-based industrialization and economic prosperity, and reduce energy poverty, faces greater challenges” she explained.
Mrs. Izuora also noted that President Bola Tinubu, in response to the high cost of petrol and the attendant rise in the cost of transportation, following the removal of fuel subsidy, launched the Presidential CNG Initiative to provide a cheaper and cleaner energy source for Nigerians.
She said, “It is based on the above initiatives and pace setting policies that we have developed a theme and sub-themes to examine and evaluate those policies by key government agencies, including key stakeholders in the industry.
“Apart from examining the role of gas initiatives boosting power sector growth, the sub-themes are evaluating the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) as preferred fuel for the transport industry.
“Road transport is the dominant mode of transportation in Nigeria, moving over 90% of internal goods and passengers across the country.
“However, from all we could glean, road transport is predominant in the Nigerian transport sector.
“This entails an excessive use of internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEs), hence, an immense contribution to CO2 emission through the combustion of petroleum-based products like PMS, AGO and ATK; relatively small amounts of methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide (N2O) are emitted during fuel combustion, though.
“The National Automotive Design and Development Council (NADDC) has revealed that Nigeria boasts of an estimated 11 million vehicles traversing its roads.
“Globally, the transport sector is a major source of CO2 pollution in the atmosphere, with a global contribution of about 7.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emission in 2020. About 20% of the global CO2 emission is contributed by Surface transport,” the Publisher stated.
Mrs Izuora noted that the Conference Committee has reviewed the various sub-sectors of the Nigerian transport sector with their corresponding energy consumption rates.
She added that the results show that all the sub-sectors are solely dependent on fossil fuels to meet their energy demands and requirements, thus making the transport sector the highest consumer of fossil fuels, and consequently, the highest contributor to carbon footprint.
“This necessitates the need for gradual decarbonisation of the sector, but not at the expense of the nation’s economy, since the transport sector contributes about 3% of the nation’s GDP,” she said.
Izuora assured that with stakeholders’ collaboration and shared commitment, its outcomes are expected to not only advance Nigeria’s objectives but also serve as a model for other nations.
