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Pipeline in Nigeria: “It's one thing to get gas or oil out of the ground.
Another thing is to harness and transport the fuels.«
Photo: Florian Plaucheur / AFP
On Monday they all walked together to the office of the state-owned Nigerian oil and gas company NNPC: the ambassadors of the EU, France, Italy, Portugal and Spain.
The aim of the concerted action: Europe wants more gas from Africa in order to become more independent from Russia.
Nigeria is already the fourth largest exporter of natural gas to Europe.
But the country itself is facing massive problems, with widespread power failures that paralyze the whole of Nigeria.
Just a few days ago it remained dark in large parts of the West African country.
The government attributes this to sabotage, but also to a lack of natural gas to supply electricity.
So how should more gas be exported to the EU?
The SPIEGEL has with the Nigerian energy expert Zakka Bala
talked about Europe's plans and the problems on the ground.
SPIEGEL:
The EU would like to import more gas from Nigeria in order to reduce dependence on Russia.
Can this plan work?
Zakka Bala:
You have no choice, you have to look elsewhere.
Nigeria is already exporting liquefied natural gas to different parts of the world, and because of the war, Europe is now looking to orient itself more towards Africa.
But I don't think they will get what they want.
The infrastructure simply does not exist for this.
It's one thing to get gas or oil out of the ground.
Harvesting and transporting the fuel, in this case to Europe, is another matter.
Because the natural gas has to be extremely cooled down and
be liquefied.
The ships that are required for this need very special equipment.
In the medium term, agreement will probably have to be reached on first building a functioning gas infrastructure in Nigeria.
SPIEGEL:
How long are we talking about here?
Bala:
I assume at least three to five years.
What little infrastructure existed in Nigeria has fallen into disrepair over the years due to vandalism and a lack of funding or maintenance.
Now gas is seen as a priority, as a cleaner fossil fuel compared to oil, as the energy of the future and as a resource that will significantly increase the country's gross domestic product.
Gas will be used to generate electricity, it will boost agriculture, including for the production of fertilizers.
I think this is in the interest of the Nigerian government.
SPIEGEL:
How bad is the condition of the pipelines?
Bala:
Vandalism in Nigeria's oil and gas fields is extremely high. Criminals tap into oil lines and destroy gas pipelines, also in protest.
As a result, the operating costs for the companies are increasing.
Many investors are pulling out.
Nigeria loses huge amounts of crude oil every day due to damage to the pipelines.
SPIEGEL:
What dimensions of gas reserves are we talking about in Nigeria?
Would that be enough to supply Europe?
Bala:
It has been proven that we have almost six trillion cubic meters of gas that could be extracted at any time using the technology available today.
And the potential is even higher: If extraction technology develops further, we could prospectively extract up to 17 trillion cubic meters of gas.
So that would easily be enough to offset Russian gas imports.
SPIEGEL:
But many EU countries, including Germany, have pushed African states to switch from fossil fuels to renewable energies in recent years - often to the annoyance of African heads of state.
Now the EU is begging for gas from Nigeria.
So was the EU strategy wrong?
Bala:
No.
The general pressure on Africa to embrace renewable energy was essentially a global movement for a cleaner ecosystem.
No one expected the current problems with natural gas to be of this magnitude, and hardly anyone seriously expected it to escalate to such an extent.
So I have a certain understanding of the situation of the Europeans.
It was and is still right to move Africa to clean energies, they are the future.
more on the subject
117 million people affected: Nigeria's national power grid collapsed - again
LNG imports and NPP runtimes: These are our alternatives to Putin's gas
Corrupt elites: Russian oligarchs should only be the beginningA guest article by Thorsten Benner and Ricardo Soares de Oliveira
SPIEGEL:
Nigeria can't even cover 20 percent of its energy needs at the moment, also because not enough natural gas is getting to the power plants.
How should the country export gas to the EU if not enough electricity can even be produced locally?
Bala:
No, that's not possible.
As the saying goes: charity begins at home.
You should first ensure enough gas for your own market.
We can't talk about export when people live in the dark.
You can see that with oil, by the way: We export crude oil and don't have a single functioning refinery in the country.
SPIEGEL:
Just a few days ago there was another massive power outage, and large parts of the country were in darkness.
It's the fifth total blackout this year.
What do you do in such situations?
Bala:
I do what everyone who can afford it does: I switch to a generator, powered by diesel or petrol.
But what does that mean?
In many factories there are production losses because the machines are idle for a short time.
Such sudden power outages can destroy an entire batch of a product.
The damage is always several billion Nigerian naira
(several million euros, ed.)
per power failure.
And even lives are lost.
Operations are being performed in hospitals and suddenly the power goes out.
What happens to the oxygen supply then?
This is very dangerous, not at all good for the economy and also not good for the country's image.
SPIEGEL:
Nigeria is one of the largest countries in Africa and has the strongest economy on the continent.
Is the country now in danger of being left behind by the energy problems?
Bala:
Africa used to look up to Nigeria, we were leaders in oil and gas, health, education, technology, sports.
But our leadership is failing the country.
It would actually not be rocket science to use enough natural gas to generate electricity.
Then people will no longer be dependent on diesel or petrol.
SPIEGEL:
At the same time, megacities like Lagos are growing by thousands of inhabitants every day, so the demand for energy is increasing immensely.
Is this a ticking time bomb?
Bala:
Not necessarily if you take the right actions.
We urgently need a strategy to decentralize the country, otherwise cities like Lagos would not exist.
Currently there are only four or five places where practically all economic activities are concentrated, it shouldn't be like that.
But yes: the demand for energy in Lagos is very high and if we don't do something about it soon, there will probably be a catastrophe.
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