Nigeria: Oil Exploration – Gazprom Revives North’s Hope

In what is seen as a strategic move in the global fight for Africa’s energy assets, both the government and Gazprom said that they were discussing a proposal under which the company would offer a package of investment in the energy sector.

The Group General Manager in charge of Public Affairs of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr Levi Ajuonuma, confirmed the FG-Gazprom talks to Sunday Trust on Friday. He said based on the plans, the Russian group would gain a foothold in some of the biggest gas deposits in the country, including some abandoned reserves in the North
Speaking to Financial Times last month, President Umaru Yar’Adua’s special adviser on petroleum, Mr Emmanuel Egbogah, said that Gazprom is offering to spend “significant numbers” of billions of dollars on a project with Suntera, a Russian-Indian energy company, to harness gas to generate electricity.Relevant Links

“I think they are looking at the overall scenario of gas competition and the world market, and Europe in particular. I think their approach is to position themselves to be quite relevant in that market,” Egbogah said.

Oil exploration in the North began in earnest in 1987, when the NNPC started drilling in the region, but it was stopped in 1999. Areas covered during the exploration included parts of Bauchi, Gombe and Borno states. Although the NNPC was reported to have found wet gas in only one of 23 exploration wells and three other multi-national corporations who were also drilling for oil in the region were said to have found no commercially viable deposits, political undertones were suspected to have informed the suspension.

It is expected that Gazprom’s scheme to capture a share of the Nigerian vast gas reserve would not only add to the global stature of the company, whose strategy is to acquire the leading position among global energy companies by entering new markets, diversifying core business activities and ensuring reliable supplies, but also reinforce a trend where state-backed energy companies are increasingly challenging the dominance of their western rivals globally.

This, according to the Financial Times, is particularly easy for Gazprom to achieve in view of the belief among government officials that western corporations have profited from Nigeria’s oil wealth for decades without giving enough in return.

AllAfrica