Sustainable Infrastructural Development in Oil and Gas Sector: Challenges and Prospects

Nigeria, though blessed with more natural gas than any other country in Africa, has very little capacity to put it to good use. The country lacks pipelines, processing facilities, petrochemicals plants and much of the other infrastructure needed for a thriving sector As a result of this, Nigeria is the world’s number two practitioner of flaring-burning gas when it comes from wells instead of trying to put it to use. Only Russia flairs more gas on an annual basis than Nigeria. With few supply bottlenecks removed, a clear legislation and an end to the sabotage and kidnapping common in the Niger Delta region, Nigeria’s gas could be the catalyst for economic growth: new businesses, jobs and the removal of millions out of poverty level. The recent global crisis in oil prices has brought us to the need to note that this over-dependence on the oil creates needless shocks and thus, the need for diversification of the nation’s resource base and long term growth path. Nigeria still has a long way to go, to solve its many problems in the Oil and Gas sector; and that most of it has to do with infrastructural decay.