A Nigerian firm, NIGUS International, on Friday signed a $1 billion agreement with a Chinese firm, Beijing Zhogmin Xinjunlong New Energy Technology Company Limited, to fund the development of the gas industry in Nigeria.
The initiative when fully operational will help bring an end to gas flaring in the country and take Nigeria further in its bid to play big in the world of Green Sustainable Energy Production.
Speaking at the agreement signing ceremony, the Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, NIGUS Int’l Malik Ado Ibrahim, said the partnership with the Chinese Company was aimed at imbibing its new state of the art technology profile to convert flared gas for commercial use.
This new technology will create Gas-to-Liquid (GTL) (synthetic diesel to galvanise energy mix), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for export and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (cooking gas) among others.
The GTL technology is a process that converts natural gas, the cleanest burning fossil fuel to high quality liquid fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel.
“The joint venture is about NIGUS, as a renewable energy company, joining forces with the technology that allows us to bring a clean climate economy to Nigeria and create value from what we are wasting at the moment to generate lower pricing energy.
“We seem not to be contributing to the carbon footprint, we flare a lot of our gas, and about 90 percent of what we produce in Nigeria is being flared, not utilising the gas.
“We are bringing to play a very modern, state of the art technology by joining forces with China to create wealth and carbon neutrality, and then generate lower price energy.
“The project is to demonstrate the president’s wish to utilise flare gas and this technology will put his wishes into action.
“The GTL will allow us to turn the gas into liquid and create LGN. The paradigm shift is that we will be able to imbed the technology where it is needed rather than adding infrastructural cost,” he said
He explained that the packaging would be beneficial to Nigeria in terms of job creation for economic growth and development.
“If Nigeria is able to push this technology, we can get some global green funds. We expect that our carbon footprint and neutrality profile will allow the joint ventures to access the kind of funds Mr President will make available for Nigeria“, he said.
On his part, the Chief Executive Officer, Beijing Zhogmin Xinjunlong New Energy Company Limited, Mr Yung Ruming, expressed readiness for the partnership, saying his team and equipment would be deployed to actualise the project.
Ruming thanked the Federal Government for giving the company the opportunity to carry out the work.
He noted that Nigeria and China had enjoyed good relationships in the past years; hence the project would be of immense benefit to Nigeria.
