the Managing Director of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG), Babs Omotowa, has said that the agency has reduced gas flaring from 65 per cent to 20 per cent in the country, adding that Nigeria is no longer in the league of top five gas flaring countries in the world.
Omotowa made this known in Ilorin, Kwara state, yesterday during the commissioning of NLNG/University Ilorin Engineering Research Centre.
He said that through the company’s university support programme, NLNG is investing $12 million in six universities in the country.
“One of the reasons why Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) was established was to reduce gas flaring in the country. When we started Nigeria was flaring about 65 per cent of its gas. We were the second highest gas flaring nation in the world.
“Through the construction of the six trains we have in NLNG we have helped to bring that down to about 20 per cent and today we are no longer among the top five gas flaring countries in the world. So we are very proud that we have contributed to the environmental improvement in the country and the health implications of that.
“In addition, we provide a significant source of revenue for the nation and are also today supplying a vast majority of the cooking gas used in many homes in Nigeria today, he stated.”
The NLNG boss listed the benefiting universities under the support programme are; Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), Zaria, University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN), University of Ibadan (UI), University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) and University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT).
He added the one of the company’s “approaches is to develop Nigerian human capital and foster technological advancement in our great country. We recognize that universities are one of the critical fertile grounds from which ideas to fast-track Nigeria’s progress will spring from.
“With this programme Nigeria LNG is partnering with six universities in Nigeria to uplift engineering teaching and research in our tertiary institutions. On its part, Nigeria LNG invested two million Dollars each to build and equip world-class engineering facilities in these schools.”
He said the universities were chosen based on their relative ranking in their geo political zones by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) and the world ranking of universities.
The Kwara state governor, Abdulfatah Ahmed represented by the Commissioner for Education and Human Capital Development, Alhaji Musa Yeketi said that “NLNG, a major global gas supplier, has been a huge revenue earner for the country. Practically every state in the country has felt the positive impact of this company as proven by the huge tax which the company paid to the federal government last year which was utilised asa bailout fund for several states.
“The company’s intervention in the domestic LPG market has also guaranteed product availability and stabilised prices in the country.
It is my prayer that Nigeria LNG will continue to enjoy the goodwill of the Nigerian government and people for being such a worthy and committed partner in the country’s advancement.”
In his opening remarks, the Vice Chancellor of UNILORIN, Prof. AbdulGaniyu Ambali thanked the NLNG for its gesture and especially for its area of intervention.
“It is engineering, whether we talk of stable electricity, good water supply, motorable roads or safe and secure housing as well as other components of our much-needed infrastructure.
“We realize largely, the success of the country is that of engineering and the failure is also the failure of engineering. In other words, if Nigeria gets her engineering right, she will get her bearing right,” Ambali stated.
