The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday said that by the end of the month, the Federal Government would have settled the contractual structure that would aid the country to unlock gas offshore  instead of depending solely on the Niger Delta.

Kachikwu, who spoke at the ongoing Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), 11th International Conference and Exhibition in Abuja, said this is why the Ministry is determined to settle the issues of the contractual framework that would help her unlock those gas resources so that we have optionality, at end of this quarter.

Kachikwu, who was represented by his Senior Technical Adviser, Upstream and Gas,  Mr. Gbite Adeniji, said that the Federal Government is serious about taking gas to the northern region of the country, through the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, gas pipeline, so as to tackle the huge economic challenges witnessed in the region.

According to him, Nigeria can no longer tolerate a situation where 11 power plants across the country would be forced to shut down, once there is a disruption in gas supply through the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS).

His words: “As  a government, you want to ensure that you have robustness in supply sources and robustness on delivery system. The position we have taken is that we have to look at as many options as possible in terms of supply sources.”

“Today, we are very dependent on gas supply from the Niger Delta.  The policy position is that we have to look at other terrains to see what is possible. We have discovered huge amount of gas resources in the offshore.