Ahead of the continent’s premier energy event taking place on the 9^th-12^th of November 2021, African Energy Week spoke to QSL Gas & Power Ltd. (QSL-GP) CEO, Olakunle Olalekan Williams about the role of natural gas in Africa, as well as the company’s current and future activities within Africa’s energy transition climate.

Please provide insight into the company’s gas development program.

Today, we play along the mid- downstream gas value chain, but building the business from the ground- up.  We started by rapidly developing a downstream gas distribution and trading portfolio within the last two years, which currently fuels over 300MW of power generation to various industrial clusters and to the grid and growing. Our downstream portfolio is resilient and leverages the current national drive to accelerate gas development in Nigeria. This has made us a gas supplier of choice to key power generation companies such as the Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited and key industrial bases.

Despite the global shift to renewable energy in the face of climate change, natural gas continues to play a critical role in Africa. How can gas be leveraged to address energy poverty in Africa?

I believe Africa still has the opportunity to become the manufacturing powerhouse of the world given its huge natural resources, low manufacturing costs, young and productive workforce, huge appetite for foreign investment attraction and especially in a post covid-19 world, with rising energy costs across almost all regions of the World. I expect that Africa should be a major recipient of global investments over the next 50 years, targeted at transforming her natural resource base into value end products.

African countries should then utilize this opportunity to bridge infrastructures gaps, especially creating energy security for its population; leverage the AFCTA to drive energy inclusion among all African countries; utilize technology such as carbon capture and storage to lower carbon emissions and improve production standards; and increase the share of resilient and matured renewable energy technologies in her energy mix to meet the global aspirations of a net zero carbon world by year 2050.

What role can African gas play in assisting Europe with its current gas crisis?

Today, Africa, through countries such as Nigeria, supplies over 28 million MT of LNG globally, some of these volumes to Europe, which represents about 12.4% of Europe’ gas needs.  But this share can increase tremendously once key LNG projects across Africa such as Nigeria’s train 7 project, Tanzania’s Likong’o-Mchinga LNG project, Mozambique’s Rovuma LNG project, and many more come on stream. Deepening Europe – Africa natural gas supply collaboration would surely be beneficial for both continents in the short to long term, given global economic and market interdependencies. 

With over 200 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves, Nigeria is on the precipice of a natural gas revolution. What role does digitization play in accelerating natural gas utilization in Nigeria?

Nigerian gas resources if fully harnessed can contribute hugely to GDP growth, but the value chain is characterized by players with significant investments across the value areas.  The structure requires operational and supply chain interdependencies to sustain business performance.  Unfortunately, the different players have diverse operating technology and IT systems (or none at all), thus business operations and supply chains within the gas value chain are too fragmented and driven by discrete data hubs that do not speak with each other. I think a key solution to this challenge would involve the creation of a Digital eco- system within the Gas industry by integrating the technology operation systems of various players with their information system driven under acceptable Digitization Standards.

How does QSL-GP plan to capitalize on the new and improved trade opportunities brought about by the AfCFTA?

The AfCFTA is a welcome development in that it finally charts the path towards increased intra African trade and the creation of a ‘One African Market’. We also note the launching of the African Single Electricity Market in June 2021 which is designed to bring greater energy security, sustainability, and competitiveness to the Africa Union Member States and would make Africa the largest single electricity market in the world serving its over 1.3 billion population. We are glad and proud of the promise that these initiatives hold for Africa, and we would immediately key into the African Single Electricity Market initiatives to expand our energy delivery capabilities to other African markets.

Does the company have plans to expand into regional markets?

Yes, first of all, we are initiating our registration as a Shipper on the West African Gas Pipeline System to further our goals of expanding gas supply to WAGP connected markets. We hope the WAGP authority and Operator would continue to create an optimal tariff model and market conditions to make gas supply through the WAGP competitive and sustainable.

Also, we are relying heavily on our Floating LNG deployment to reach wider African markets.  Working together with our international Floating systems OEM partner, we plan to scale our LNG capacity to over 350MMscfd (quantify in MT) within next 5 years. We would, in the long term, expand gas development for our FLNG business to valued asset in other producing African nations.

Can you provide some insight into QSL-GP’s 2022 outlook?

Currently, we are working on projects that would extend our gas distribution footprint to other unserved markets, with key gas distribution projects already being planned in some industrial clusters within the Southwest of Nigeria. We expect these to come on stream mid-Q1, 2022.

QSL-GP is also collaborating with upstream entities such as Shoreline Energy Natural Resources Limited to develop key gas utilization infrastructures and distribution systems to deliver up to 100 MMscf [2.83 mcm] per day of gas supply into the domestic market; developing a ‘state of the art’ Ying Zhi Energy Industrial Park, designed to house several industrial and energy activities that would meet energy and product demand within the region; and working with local and international partners to deploy floating LNG systems, leveraging Nigerian gas to meet gas needs in key African markets. We expect our first shipment of about 1,977,649.5MT to be made by end Q3, 2022.

We would also be leveraging the platform provided by the AEW to explore investment opportunities in NAG assets across our region and also LNG import systems that would overall help us create a strong and resilient business value chain, but more importantly, support the African Single Electricity Market. 

AEW 2021, in partnership with South Africa’s Department of Mineral Resources and Energy DMRE, is the AEC’s annual conference, exhibition and networking event. AEW 2021 unites African energy stakeholders with investors and international partners to drive industry growth and development and promote Africa as the destination for energy investments.