The European Union has continued its push to source alternate gas supply beyond Russia.
The EU is seeking additional gas supplies from Nigeria.
According to the deputy director general of the European Commission’s energy department, Matthew Baldwin, on Saturday said, the continental bloc is preparing for potential Russian supply cuts.
Baldwin told newsmen that the EU imports 14% of its total LNG supplies from Nigeria and there is potential to more than double this.
“If we can get up to beyond 80 per cent, at that point, there might be additional LNG that could be available for spot cargoes to come to Europe,” Baldwin said.
“They (Nigerian officials) said to us, ‘Come and talk to us again at the end of August because we think we can deliver real progress on this.'”
Recall that in March, Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources, Timipre Sylva, said that his country is ready to become an alternative gas supplier to the EU, in a meeting with EU diplomats in Abuja.
He urged the bloc to encourage its oil and gas companies, such as Shell, Eni, and Total Energies, to step up their investments in the Nigerian gas sector.
“We would like to be reliable partners to solve the energy problem in Europe and we can only achieve this by working together. It is only when investment in these areas is increased that Nigeria can meet that obligation,” Sylva said.
Nigeria’s oil corporation, the NNPC was recently launched as a commercial venture and with the new gas supply agreement with the EU, it is hoped that the oil rich West African country might be turning the tide, particularly with gas which until now Nigeria is wastefully flaring a large chunk.