Nigeria has potential to raise gas reserves to 600 trillion cubic feet – Official

Nigeria has the potential to raise its natural gas reserves to 600 trillion cubic feet from the current 188 trillion cubic feet, a senior government official said Tuesday.

The country is conducting studies on the potential gas reserves, Emmanuel Egbogah, adviser to the president of Nigeria on petroleum matters, told reporters on the sidelines of an industry conference.

Egbogah said Nigeria currently can’t collect the gas released during the extraction of crude oil, as it gets burnt due to a lack of collection and storage facilities. Once such facilities improve, so will production of gas, he added.

He said that a two-train, 10-million-ton-a-year liquefied natural gas project in the country’s Brass region is expected to be completed in 2012 or 2013.

Partners in the project are the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., Italy’s Eni SpA, France’s Total SA and U.S.-based ConocoPhillips. They signed a shareholders’ agreement in September 2006.
Source: Dow Jones