Kyari in New York, says Nigeria committed to use of gas as transition fuel, attain zero flare by 2026

In a bid to align to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd says the country is committed to using gas as transition fuel and attain net zero flare by year 2026.

Mr. Mele Kyari, the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPCL, made the commitment in an interview in New York, U.S., shortly after signing on behalf of the company to become a participant of the UN Global Compact on the sidelines of the Global Africa Business Initiative (GABI).

He said to achieve sustainable power and energy, Nigeria is already on a sustainable path towards creating access for Nigerians to have clean energy.

“Clearly the sustainable path is to see when we can get to net zero. Our country is committed to net zero by 2026. We must take practical steps including using transition fuel. We use gas as transition fuel since our country is a gas country.

“Majority of the people do not have access to clean energy even for cooking. Therefore, you have to do a careful substitution with gas as a source of energy as we progress.

“Today in our country there is zero flare, you can’t start a project with a flare,’’ Persecondnews publisher, who covered the event in New York, quotes Kyari as saying.

On the quest to attain national prosperity, Kyari said prosperity cannot be attained without energy.

“You can’t have prosperity anywhere without energy. Today the whole sub-Saharan African countries actually have less than 50 per cent of energy sufficiency, cheap energy availability. Of course, you have to address that before you talk about prosperity.

“There s clear linkage between poverty, energy availability and also peace. We want to see how our business can close that gap by providing the energy so that prosperity can be created,’’ the NNPCL boss also said.

On affordability of fuel, Kyari said the quantity would have to be increased to create access to the commodity.

“Affordability means you have to increase quantity. There is a linkage between demand and supply. We don’t want to do subsidy, yes that is clear. You have to make it abundant so that people can have access to it.’’

On his expectations at the next GABI conference, Kyari said he hoped to see the challenges of energy supply in sub-Sahara Africa addressed.

“I think the world is getting segregated platforms for addressing the challenges of energy supply in sub-Sahara Africa by creating windows for financing for African countries. We want to see that in the next conference,’’ he said.