(Ecofin Agency) - Nigeria is to shift its focus to natural gas production as its oil reserve has been estimated to be exhausted in the next 25 to 30 years. These were the words of the Minister of oil, Emmanuel Kachikwu (photo), who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, at a labour conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

The country’s gas reserves have been estimated to sustain the country’s fuel revenues for 60 more years but significant investments would be needed. “Gas is the new horizon of opportunity. There is so much happening that needs to happen, that should have happened yesterday. Gas is the future for this country and the place to be and we need to start looking at that. Increasingly, we are seeing very strong local players,” he said.

Over the past weeks, Africa’s second largest oil producer has been focusing on renovating and constructing new refineries to reduce its dependence on imports of refined petroleum products. Reuters a week ago, said crude exports will reach 2.02million bpd in August, the highest in 17 months.

“As it concerns Nigeria, we must work inclusively hard to deal with some of the difficulties that we will continue to see in our production platforms. Whether it is the militants which is a key component or the slow speed of approvals or whether the fact that our policies are not even as fast as they should to catch up with changing times,” Kachikwu added.

Anita Fatunji