EU wants Nigeria to take over from Russia as it main natural gas supplier as Ukraine war rages on

EUROPEAN Union (EU) officials have visited Abuja and requested that Nigeria replace Russia as the community's supplier of natural gas following the imposition of economic sanctions against Moscow over the Ukraine war.

Since February 24 this year, Russia and Ukraine have been involved in a bitter conflict that has lead to the deaths of about 47,000 people and displaced another 47m. Blaming Russia for the war, claiming it was an act of aggression against Ukraine, the EU alongside the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato), have imposed trade sanctions Moscow.

Among the commodities affected by these sanctions is natural gas but this will have a severe impact on the global market as Russia has the world's largest gas reserves with 37.4trn cubic metres. Nigeria has the tenth largest gas supplies in the world with 5.5trn cubic metres, so is seen by the EU as an ideal replacement supplier.

Earlier this week, the EU delegation to the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) visited Abuja to open talks on the matter. Matthew Baldwin, the deputy director-general, of the European Commission's department for energy, led the team to meet with government officials and private sector players, including key stakeholders in the energy sector.

He pointed out that Europe is in a tight spot, following the war as the instability in its gas supplies is real and the community is faced with the threat of its supplies being cut off. As a short term measure, the EU had advised member states to reduce gas consumption by 15% as it warned that a complete shutdown of Russia’s supply was possible.

Mr Baldwin said: “We have launched the energy platform task force and the primary goal is to reach out to our reliable partners such as Nigeria to replace the gas from Russia.”

For the programme to take off, however, a pipeline connecting Nigeria with Europe needs to be built, similar to those currently linking Russia with the West. Plans already in the offing include the construction of an Trans-Saharan pipeline that will line Warri with Algeria and from there Europe.