The group chief executive officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, yesterday said the Final Investment Decision (FID) on the Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project will be taken in December 2024. Kyari also advocated a differentiated approach to attaining energy transition for the African continent. He spoke during a leadership dialogue session at the ongoing CERAWeek Conference in Houston, United States. According to the GCEO, energy transition is a very difficult subject for countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, because geographically, the situations are different.
He stated that several of the countries were dealing with energy availability, not transition, and energy availability was closely linked to energy security. Kyari said, “The world has seen all the challenges thrown up recently by geopolitical events. It is clear that before the energy transition, countries must first attain security of energy supply in their countries. You cannot talk about energy security when it is not even available. In most of sub-Saharan Africa, 70 percent of the population don’t have access to clean cooking fuels. Therefore, you must fill the supply gap first.” A statement by NNPCL’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, quoted Kyari as saying that although people talked about using renewables to close the energy transition gap, the money for the renewables, too, must be found.
