Nigeria is set to construct the first gas industrial park in Africa, also touted to be the largest, according to the country’s petroleum resources minister
Diezani Allison-Madueke said this in Abuja at recently held Gas Resources Conference and Exhibition organised by Nigeria’s Senate Committee on Gas.
The park, which would be located in Delta State, will comprise industries that would produce items such as methanol, fertilisers, petrochemicals and other related products.
Allison-Madueke said, “As part of our infrastructure blueprint, we have entrenched the concept of gas processing facilities, with a view to extracting the various constituents of natural gas such as the LPG and ethanol, among others.”
According to the minister, when this is done, the availability of LPG for use domestically will increase and the ethane to be gotten from the extraction process can be used to help petrochemical industries grow. Also, the residue gas could then be used as raw material for methanol, fertiliser, etc.
The minister noted that past administrations had focused on crude oil, failing to explore gas production, which was then treated as a useless by-product of oil production. This, she said, made gas pricing low as it was made deliberately so because government saw it as a quick way to dispose an unwanted product.
Now, in compliance with global best practices, she added that Nigeria has planned to ensure that gas exploration becomes the hub of the country’s economic activities as it is the case in other countries.
