The Chairman of the National Gas Expansion Programme, Prof. Mohammed Ibrahim, has said that the production of coal bed methane, an unconventional form of natural gas extracted from coal, is set to begin in Benue State.

Prof. Ibrahim said this when addressing pressmen after a joint meeting of the National and State gas expansion committees with Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia.

He said the Federal Government is committed to expanding gas availability in Nigeria for domestic use and mobility.

He added that extracting gas from unconventional coal sources rather than traditional hydrocarbon reserves is a way to boost gas availability.

?Essentially there are four areas of implementation that the committee has identified. One is to pioneer the production of gas from what you call coal bed methane, which means that Benue is going to pioneer in the country the production of gas not from conventional hydrocarbon but from non-conventional coal just so that the nation will have an alternative source to gas availability,? he said.

On his part, the Chairman of the State Gas Expansion Programme, Dr Emmanuel Chenge, said the gas expansion initiative would contribute to the economic transformation of Benue state.

?The good news is that Benue is set to join the league of gas-producing states and if we are conversant with what being a member of the gas-producing state is, it shows that Benue State will start getting derivatives from that sector of the economy,? Dr Chenge noted.

The National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) was established to boost the exploration and utilisation of gas in Nigeria and make Nigeria a gas-based industrial nation by increasing the use of gas for transportation, cooking, and industrialisation.

Nigeria needs $20 billion annual investment in gas infrastructure

Nairametrics reported that Nigeria needs $20 billion annually for 10 years as investment in gas infrastructure, according to the Executive Secretary and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr Ogbonnaya Orji.

Nigeria has the largest reserves of gas and is among the top ten countries with the highest gas reserves. However, a large share of these reserves are untapped due to a lack of adequate investment in infrastructure.

The Federal Government is accelerating efforts to improve the availability of gas in Nigeria through initiatives such as the Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative and the NGEP.

In the area of gas-powered mobility, the PCNGI said it has invested over $450 million in the development of Nigeria?s CNG value chain. (Nairametrics)

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