By Musa Adamu
Abuja
Nigeria has assured the Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF) of its continuous support as it struggles to surmount the challenges that the global oil and gas industry was facing.
This assurance was given by President Muhammadu Buhari at the 3rd summit of heads of state and government of the GECF member countries in Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran.
The President noted that trying times had called for more cooperation and coordination among member countries, while thanking President Hassan Rouhani of Iran for the invitation to discuss issues affecting the GECF and reaffirm commitment to the objectives of the forum.
Speaking at the 17th ministerial meeting of the GECF also in Tehran, GECF President and Nigeria’s minister of state for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, identified market volatility, increasing competition, price war and escalating cost of infrastructure development as the key challenges facing the gas industry in general and the GECF in particular.
Dr. Kachikwu posited that volatility had brought so much uncertainty and instability to the market, thus, affecting decisions on investment for long term supply of gas.
He noted that increasing competition occasioned by the surge in new gas producers had led to a price war at a time when the cost of infrastructure development is escalating.
These developments, he argued, were setting the stage for even more challenges for the industry and GECF member countries in the future.
Kachikwu however, cautioned against reacting to the current challenges by failing to invest in the industry.
He assured that the current challenges would come to pass and that the market would rebound given the world’s need for energy and the environmental credentials of gas as the cleanest hydrocarbon fuel.
