Nigeria: Natural gas output to triple by 2020

NIGERIA aimed to almost triple its natural gas production capacity by 2020 to help meet its power and industrial development needs, Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke said on Monday. Africa’s biggest oil producer wanted to increase gas capacity to 11 billion cubic feet a day, from about 113 million cubic metres now, Alison-Madueke said. “We are moving very aggressively into gas for industrialisation purposes,” she said. “At the same time we have to work very, very critically on our gas-to-power needs.” Nigeria generates less electricity than it needs, and has regular blackouts that are a bottleneck for growth. A shortage of gas for power plants is one reason generation is below capacity. – Bloomberg