The federal government has said that the production of coal bed methane, an unconventional form of natural gas extracted from coal, is set to begin in Benue State.
Chairman of the National Gas Expansion Programme, Mohammed Ibrahim, disclosed this while addressing journalists after a joint meeting of the National and State gas expansion committees with Benue State Governor, Hyacinth Alia.
He said the federal government is committed to expanding gas availability in Nigeria for domestic use and mobility.
He added that extracting gas from unconventional coal sources rather than traditional hydrocarbon reserves is a way to boost gas availability.
According to him, the committee had identified four areas of implementation, one of which is to pioneer the production of gas from what you call coal bed methane, which means that Benue is going to pioneer in the country the production of gas not from conventional hydrocarbon but from non-conventional coal just so that the nation will have an alternative source to gas availability.
On his part, the Chairman of the State Gas Expansion Programme, Dr Emmanuel Chenge, said the gas expansion initiative would contribute to the economic transformation of Benue state.
“The good news is that Benue is set to join the league of gas-producing states and if we are conversant with what being a member of the gas-producing state is, it shows that Benue State will start getting derivatives from that sector of the economy,” he added.
The National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) was established to boost the exploration and utilisation of gas in Nigeria and make Nigeria a gas-based industrial nation by increasing the use of gas for transportation, cooking, and industrialisation.
