OFFICE OF THE MANAGER, COMMUNICATIONS

GOVERNMENT HOUSE

DELTA STATE OF NIGERIA

ASABA

PRESS RELEASE

 UDUAGHAN GUARANTEES SECURITY AS NIGERIAN GAS MASTER PLAN GENERATES INTEREST IN LONDON

 The Nigerian Gas Master plan Road show in London has drawn strong interest from investors in Europe with Delta state governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan urging interested investors to give the local communities a sense of ownerships of their investment as a strategy to guarantee security of their investment in the Niger Delta, while the Minister of state for Gas, Mr. Emmanuel Odusina, described gas availability in the country as a gold rush, considering the high demand for gas in the domestic market and in the Western African sub-region and Europe. 

The London Road Show, which held at Hilton Metropole, saw paper presentation by top officials of NNPC on the viability of investing in the Nigerian gas, which they say has some of the best properties in the world.

 Governor Uduaghan in his paper, “The Niger Delta Region Development and Security Strategy,” explained that contrary to impression a lot of progress has been made to improve the security situation in the region.

 Dr Uduaghan’s paper which drew a lot of attention from the audience, who were concerned about the security situation, gave an overview of the situation in the zone,  the key issues and challenges in Niger Delta, federal government’s strategy and approach, the state government’s strategy and approach, common areas of interest and Delta state as a case study.

 Making his presentation with charts and statistics, Governor Uduaghan demonstrated that progress has been made in addressing the security situation in the region, with all the stakeholders, from the federal government, state government and the local communities playing a role. He, however, maintained that giving the communities a sense of belonging would make them cooperative with the investors, whose activities devastate the local environment and thus endanger their economic activities of fishing and farming.

 He further explained that the state government has also developed its own Master plan, known as Delta State Gas Master Plan, which is aligned with the National Gas Master plan and which will lead to unprecedented development of the gas sector in the state. He also said the state is determined to create gas cities for industrial estates in the state.

 The Minister of state for Gas, Mr. Emmanuel Odusina assured investors that the federal government has through the Gas Master plan put in place adequate framework to ensure that investment in the gas sub-sector yields optimal returns.

 The Minister told the audience that Nigeria is determined to move from being the 7^th largest producer of gas to the second behind only to Qatar, with the full implementation of the Gas Master plan.

 He said there is a lot of money to be made by those who can come into Nigeria’s gas sector, adding that the gas Master plan is a holistic framework which addresses the issues of gas pricing, availability and accessibility.

 Also speaking in a similar vein on security in the Niger Delta, Mr. Odusina, maintained that reports about the insecurity has been overblown pointing at oil major’s in the country, which despite what has been reported has remained in the country, doing business and making a lot of money. He urged investors to discount the reports of insecurity.           

 In his paper, Dr David Ige, General Manager/ Special Technical Adviser to Group Managing Director of NNPC explained that Nigerian gas is low in sulphur and rich in LPG.  He said apart from the rich quality of Nigerian gas, the master plan is designed to integrate gas infrastructure in the country and end the disjointed approach that had long stalled full optimization of Nigeria’s gas potential.     

Signed: Paul Odili