Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States has stated that it will replace Russian gas with Nigerian gas.
This is a step in the EU’s efforts to reduce its reliance on Russian gas.
Matthew Baldwin, Deputy Director-General, Department for Energy, European Commission in Brussels stated this, on Friday in Abuja.
Baldwin, who is billed to meet with top government officials and private sector players, said, “In summary, I am on a mission from Europe to try to deliver Liquefied Natural Gas today in the context of the NLG partnership tomorrow with Nigeria.
“Europe is in a tight spot in relations to gas, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the instability in our gas market and the threat of cutting off supply altogether.
“So, we have launched the energy platform task force and the primary goal is to reach out to our reliable partners such as Nigeria to replace the gas from Russia with gas from reliable partners.”
The senior EU official explained that the economic bloc early this week, launched a gas demand reduction plan and was looking to reduce demand of gas by 15 per cent to manage the demand aspect of the equation.
He noted, “To be clear, we need to manage the supply side and that’s why we want to expand what is currently at 14 per cent shares of our total LNG import from Nigeria and we want it to go up.
“Our gas percentage was 60 per cent but now we want to go.”
According to him, Nigerian products had an extraordinary potential and that was why EU wanted to expand the short-term delivery.
Baldwin also said that by the end of August, the EU hoped to kick-start the partnership, adding that it would create a long term partnership with Nigeria.
The Head of the EU delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Samuela Isopi, said that the bloc was doing its part in contributing to the energy sector through different collaborations with the Federal Government.