Eurasia Review: Nigeria: An Alternative Energy Source For The European Union? - Analysis

Recent events in Ukraine and the threat posed by the European Union’s dependency on Russian energy — Moscow supplies a quarter of Europe’s needs for natural gas, 80% of which runs through Ukrainian territory — has led Brussels, and EU’s city-capitals, to consider alternative sources towards alleviating the dependency and thus increasing Europe’s energy security.

Beyond Russia and European indigenous production — which accounts for 33% of the EU’s usage of natural gas—Europe’s five largest partners are Norway (22%), Algeria (9%), Qatar (6%) and Nigeria (2%). One can notice that the small share of Nigerian natural gas out of the total European imports does not correspond to Abuja’s real capacity and potential in becoming a strategic energy partner.

In fact, the Nigerian government aspires to do just that. On the sidelines of the ministerial meeting of the EU-OPEC energy dialogue, which took place in Brussels in June 2014, Nigeria’s Petroleum Minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke, said “[t]he Federal Government restated its resolve to support the long term gas supply security for the European Union countries as part of measures to expand the nation’s gas market”.
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