Improving Liquefied Natural Gas Capacity In Nigeria: Olakunle Williams speaks

In recent years, Nigeria has maintained its position as one of the largest oil producers in Africa. Thanks to the huge supply of the resources’ by-products like fossil fuels and biomass, and according to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Nigeria currently has a reservoir of over 200 trillion cubic feet of natural gas being managed by top companies in the gas and energy sector.

Positioned at the forefront of delivering clean, cost-effective, and sustainable energy solutions for power generation and industrial development, QSL-Gas & Power Limited has attracted significant levels of project developments across the energy value chain. Recently, the company extended its reach outside the shores of Nigeria by participating in the Africa Energy Week (AEW) 2021 in Cape Town, South Africa. The 4-day conference which held from 9th to 12th November 2021, was well attended by top African energy stakeholders, investors, and internationals to discuss the transition of Africa’s energy and the need to make energy poverty alleviation a reality by 2030.

During the Nigeria country spotlight panel session at the event, Olakunle Williams, CEO of QSL-Gas & Power Limited spoke passionately about how Nigeria has positioned itself as an attractive investment destination in 2021 and beyond.

“The African free trade agreement already envisaged that by June 2021, we would surpass the energy single electricity market. The whole idea is that all Africans, regardless of status and location can have access to energy. Nigeria plays a critical role in this, considering that we hold a third of the energy reserve in Africa,” he stated.

“Today, we are already leveraging on the west African gas pipeline to service regional markets in Togo, Ghana, and Benin Republic; with pipelines where these countries can access gas directly from Nigeria,” he continued. “Nigeria is serving over 500 megawatts power supply to these countries and we should leverage more on that.” Williams also talked about the ongoing Ajaokuta-Kaduna—Kano (AKK) pipeline in Nigeria which, when completed, is expected to supply huge volumes of energy to North Africa.

Commenting on opportunities in the sector, he stated, “We should also continue to build our LNG capabilities in Nigeria in such a way that we can interconnect more countries within Africa. Also, we need to ensure that our supply chain management system speaks to each other across board, from the point where we source our products to the processing point and demand centers. We need to connect the ‘chain’ in a way that it can be resilient and lead to energy sustainability in Africa.”

Speaking on the journey so far, he noted that, “statistics show we are doing less than 10% flares, so we are doing very well. Before the recently passed Petroleum Industry Act (“PIA”), we already had policies in place to reduce flaring. Obviously, we cannot completely reduce flares but under the PIA there is a clear direction and policy in place.”

The panel session had other key industry experts which included, Dr Adedapo Odulaja, Governor of OPEC for Nigeria, Ministry of Petroleum Resources of Nigeria; Akinwole Omoboriowo II, CEO, Genesis Energy; Kola Karim, Managing Director and CEO, Shoreline Energy International; Heine Melkevik, former Managing Director Equinor Nigeria, current Managing Director Business Development, Alta Trading UK Limited; and Lawal Musa, Energy Analyst at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.

In a nutshell, the Africa Energy Week 2021 ended on a high note with a concrete strategy on how Africa can transform using energy and the expertise of top industry companies such as QSL-Gas & Power.

QSL-Gas & Power Limited is an indigenous Nigerian energy company focused on integrating innovative technological solutions to natural gas distribution. Proactive within the downstream value chain, QSL-GP works closely with the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company Limited, as well as other industry collaborators, distributing natural gas for a range of industrial and power generation applications.

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