Nigeria and Spain have committed to strengthening their bilateral ties and collaborations on business ventures and the development of Nigeria’s gas resources for the world energy market.
Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, announced this on Thursday in Abuja when he met with Jose Albarese, the Foreign Minister of Spain, along with other senior government officials and Spanish investors.
The focus of the bilateral meeting between Spain and Nigeria was Spain’s investment in technology, security, and the development of Nigeria’s gas resources.
According to the minister, Spain has been a partner and customer of the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas (NLNG) company from its inception.
Sylva, who describes Spain as one of the first countries to visit in 2023, said the visit could tell the importance of the relationship between the countries, adding that Nigeria required investments in the oil and gas sector, being the core of the economy.
He said the identified major investment companies and potential investors on the table, occasioned huge opportunities for Nigeria in view of the Nigeria Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) already pitched process of mini bid round.
“These are people that they would have ordinarily gone to meet in their country before any bid round, but in this case, the potential investors are here by themselves, so you can see why this meeting is very important.
“As a country, we need a lot of investments, we need Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and Spain is one of the countries that we believe can give us a lot of that investment to help in development,” he said.
According to Sylva, Nigeria currently has proven gas reserves of up to over 200 trillion cubic feet of gas, and with a focus on the exploration for additional gas, Nigeria can increase these reserves to up to 600 TCF.
He further said that Europe also required gas currently, hence Nigerian energy transition programme should be more mindful of the development of gas as well because there was the clamour from some sources to move so quickly to renewables.
“And as a country, we felt that we are going to move on the transition train through the instrumentality of gas.
“Spain is in the position to also support us in this area of security because insecurity is one of the major problems facing the industry today. So we are going to be looking up to Spain.
“And then, of course, Spain will also look up to us for further supply of gas. They are also interested in the pipeline that we are developing to Morocco. I believe that is going to settle the issue of vessel flight from Nigeria to Europe.
Albarese, earlier had commended Nigeria’s ability and expressed Spain’s interest to facilitate investment opportunities in the oil and gas sector of the economy, adding that Nigeria was its first supplier of oil and gas.
The Spanish minister who was pleased with the revolution and opportunities in the sector as informed by Sylva, said the cooperation from the countries, especially from Spanish investors, would yield gains.
“Nigeria has been a strategic partner to Spain and has proven once again as a trusted partner in the complex setting of the global energy market,” he said.
The meeting had in attendance, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Limited, Mallam Mele Kyari; Authority Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority, Mr. Ahmed Farouk; Commission Chief Executive, NUPRC, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe; Managing Director, NLNG, Mr. Philip Mshelbila, among others.