Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has within four years helped to double domestic utilization of natural gas from 400mscf standard to 1500bcf.
The corporation's Group Managing Director, Engr Andrew Yakubu linked the increase in domestic use of gas to the reforms by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration which also added additional 500km of gas pipeline to the national grid.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has within four years helped to double domestic utilization of natural gas from 400mscf standard to 1500bcf.
The corporation's Group Managing Director, Engr Andrew Yakubu linked the increase in domestic use of gas to the reforms by the President Goodluck Jonathan administration which also added additional 500km of gas pipeline to the national grid.
Speaking at the University of Lagos during his investiture, among 13 other prominent Nigerians as Fellow of the Nigeria Academy of Engineering, he said the NNPC had connected gas from South to North part of the country.
Yakubu added that the full implementation of National gas Master plan is expected to convey gas from Oben to Geregu, enroute Kaduna to Kano and Maiduguri, among others.
He noted that Nigeria's power sector as well as industries and other manufacturing concerns in the country have been positioned as major beneficiaries of the reforms in the gas sector.
Speaking on the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry, he said: "You have to know where we are coming from, when the Jonathan administration came on board, the refineries were not working. For two years government arrested the menace of fuel scarcity, the scourge of fuel scarcity is now past event. We restored the refineries in a record time of four months. We started with the topping and reforming the refineries. Al the units of the refineries are working. Today we have revamped two refineries to profitability," he added.
Laying emphasis on security challenges facing the pipelines used to convey fuel, he said the NNPC controlled the menace on the Aba-Port Harcourt route, which has one of the highest records of pipeline breakage. He added that the pipeline was revamped and fixed in 2012.
On the trouble in the north east geo-political zone, he said the NNPC also fixed Kano, Gombe and Kaduna pipelines, adding that the Kaduna Refinery supplies maximum of one million litres of petrol to the Suleja depot alone, which has met the need of end users in that part of the country. He further added that all the jobs were done by Nigerian Engineers.
President of Nigerian Academy of Engineers, Prof Raifu Salawu, who also spoke at the event, urged the Federal Government to stop the destruction of the so-called illegal refineries in Niger Delta region, and instead, provide them with legal means of sourcing crude as part of the measures to boost domestic refining of fuel in the country.
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