The Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, said on Thursday that the Federal Government would partner the German Government to ensure effective supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).
Kachikwu made the announcement in Abuja at a meeting with a German Economic Delegation, led by the German Vice-Minister of Economic Affairs, Uwe Beckmeyer.
The minister of state said the meeting focused on finding areas that would strengthen business relations between Nigeria and Germany.
“What we spent time doing is to explore areas of cooperation that can be expanded in Nigeria.
“We are worried that we need to move fairly on the LNG training development so that we can produce and supply more gas to Germany given the tightness in the LNG market sector,” he said.
Kachukwu noted that technology in the power and oil services sector needed to be enhanced; saying that diversification in Nigerian LNG was central to economic stabilisation of the country.
“We need to do a lot more in that direction to ensure that German companies that are coming to Nigeria are happy to come and find it easy to meet the positive aspect of the Nigerian business environment.
“The environment includes our population’s buying power and the fact that the buying power in Africa is domiciled in Nigeria.
“So there is a bright future here but we need to move faster and tackle the areas of concern that we have.”
He noted that a lot of work had been on train seven of the NLNG with Final Investment Decision now taken.
He expressed hope that Nigeria could break the tightness of the market if the basic things were properly put in place.
Beckmeyer said that Germany and Nigeria had good business relationship which informed the decision to help the country harness its potential in the oil and gas sector.
He said that a lot of interest had been on LNG, stressing the need to develop the sector to boost Nigeria’s economy.
The envoy added that the partnership would help Nigeria to ensure reduction in gas emission.
“Nigeria is a country with huge potential and I think we should work closely together to encourage all the people here to make it possible for Germany to increase their business here.
“We talked about particular things to bring the market up in a good way. There is a lot of opportunity for the future,” he said.
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