By Linus Aleke
The European Union (EU), delegation to Nigeria has applauded the efforts of troops of the Nigerian military in tackling the menace of illegal refinaries and economic sabotage in the creeks of the Niger Delta.
Troops of Operation Delta Safe and other related operations of the Armed Forces of Nigeria has continuously uncovered and successfully deactivated illegal refining sites, as well as destruction of their adulterated refined petroleum products.
Deputy Director General, Energy, European Union Commission, Mr. Mathew Baldwin gave this commendation while fielding questions from newsmen in Abuja.
Mr. Baldwin who led a delegation of EU on a fact finding mission in Nigeria on way to increase supply of gas from Nigeria to Europe to mitigate the energy crisis said that the EU energy companies in Nigeria are concerned about security situation the the country.
He said that Europe, in the past became too dependant on one supplier of gas and that supplier has proved to not just be unreliable but chosen to weaponize gas as a political tool.
According to him, “The 24th of February 2022, changes everything, we are looking forward to build a new partnership with countries like Nigeria, and not just Nigeria, to supply our vital gas need as part of our transition fuel. Obviously, we want the war to end and the aggression against Ukraine to stop, but I don’t want you to think that this partnership we like to develop is just related to that. We have got to change, and we need to change long term. I really want to underline that again and now that Europe is interested, it will lead to more investment.
“I want to repeat my answer before, that the private sector will be taking the lead on investment … we have had some interesting indications from some European companies that are based here already, about the interesting number of ongoing projects. I think what they are looking to see is the improvement on the security situation and we are very pleased about their commitment, not just from the NNPC but also from the ministries involved”.
On the efforts of the military he said: “From the military, we are taking extraordinary role, we went yesterday to this amazing illegal refining sites, where they had taken it down yesterday, and some of the pictures has been published online. It was an extraordinary visit, amazing undertaking and it is a clear sign of the commitment of the Nigerian military to change the situation. It is not just doing this for European Union, it is clear, they are doing it for Nigerian communities to stop the terrible environmental degradation going on as a result of this illegal activities, and the lost of revenue to Nigeria. And last but not the least, the lost of export, to places like the EU. We know that we are not the only buyers. Nigeria has got a valuable commodity to sell and it is really tragic to see this value go down the drain. The commitment to curtail the security situation by the Nigerian military is very encouraging”.
Earlier in a press briefing over the weekend, Mr. Baldwin said that Europe is in a tight spot in relation to supply of gas.
While noting that EU is interested in increasing the volume of gas from Nigeria, Mr. Baldwin said that Europe wants to replace Russian gas with Nigeria’s and other reliable partners.
He also disclosed that Nigeria is requesting for 10 billion dollars support annually to help develop the capacity to supply the volume of gas needed.
According to him, “I am on a mission from Europe to try to deliver LNG today in the context of an energy partnership tomorrow with Nigeria. Europe is in a tight spot in relation to gas following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and instability in the market … together. We have launched the energy platform and the primary goal is to reach out to our reliable partners such as Nigeria to replace the gas from Russia with gas from reliable partners. You would have seen, perhaps earlier this week that we launched a gas reduction plan, we are looking forward for our member states, each member states to reduce gas demand from Russia up to 50 percent. We also made it clear to manage the supply side, we want to expand what is currently at 14 percent supply of LNG from Nigeria. This has been very much our focus, we have a fruitful discussions in the cause of this week with our Nigerian partner,” he concluded.
Also, the European Union Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ms. Samuela Isopi said that EU will invest no fewer than 400 million Euros in gas in the next few years
