Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister Timipre Sylva said on Saturday that the country discovered an extra 206 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves inadvertently while searching for crude oil.
Mr Sylva said in Abuja that the discovery of an added 600 trillion cubic feet of oil and gas will allow the nation to reach the level of development expected of the oil and gas-rich country.
Clarifying the discovery, he stated: “We were looking for crude oil but accidentally found gas. The belief is that if we aim to look for gas dedicatedly, we will find up to 600 trillion cubic meters of gas.”
Nigeria has 187 trillion cubic feet of known natural gas reserves as of 2017, ranking tenth globally and accounting for about 3% of the world’s total natural gas reserves.
According to the Department of Petroleum Resources, the West African nation’s gas reserves increased marginally peaking at 203 trillion cubic feet in 2020, before the inadvertent discovery this year.
