Buhari leaves Nigeria for Equatorial Guinea on Friday

President Buhari reportedly received an invitation to attend the summit on November 19, 2019.

President Muhammadu Buhari will on Friday, November 29, 2019, embark on a trip to Malabo in Equatorial Guinea for a summit.

After the summit, the president will return to his country home, Daura, in Katsina State for a five-day visit.

Explaining the purpose of his trip to Malabo, the presidency on Thursday, November 28, 2019, said, Buhari would be in Equatorial Guinea to attend the 5th Gas Exporting Countries Forum Summit.

According to Punch, other gas producing countries expected at the summit include Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Bolivia, Iran, Qatar, Russia, Trinidad and Tobago, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Kazakhstan and Norway.

Presidential spokesperson, Mr Garba Shehu, in a statement said that the “account for 70 per cent and 80 per cent of global gas reserves and production respectively.

“The idea of the GECF was first mooted in 2001 when the First Ministerial Meeting held in Tehran, Iran, while the First GECF otherwise called Gas Summit, took place in Doha, Qatar in 2011 with Nigeria represented at the highest level.

“Indeed, President Buhari had attended the Third Gas Summit in Tehran in November 2015. This Fifth Gas Summit in Malabo is the first time the biennial meeting will be hosted in Africa,” he said.

President Buhari reportedly received an invitation to attend the summit on November 19, 2019. The invitation was said to have been delivered by the Special Envoy of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Mr Gabriel Mbega Obiang Lima, Punch reports.

During his visit, Buhari was said to have told the envoy that “Nigeria is more of a gas producing rather than oil producing country. That fact had long been established. If we had followed our plans laid out in the 1970s for the gas sector, we should have had 12 trains by early 1980s, instead of being on just six trains.”

The presidency said, “Nigeria, being home to the largest proven natural gas reserves in Africa, over 202 trillion cubic feet, and the ninth-largest in the world, the Malabo Summit provides a veritable platform for President Buhari to reaffirm Nigeria’s commitment to the broad objectives of the GECF, which among others, seek to ‘support the sovereign rights of member countries over their natural gas resources and their ability to independently plan and manage the sustainable, efficient and environmentally-conscious development, use and conservation of natural gas resources for the benefit of their people.’

“The Nigerian delegation will also use the opportunity to discuss current trends in the global gas market, potential policies for the energy sector and opportunities for collaboration.

“At the end of the 5th Gas Summit, the Malabo Declaration is expected to be adopted.”

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Geoffrey Onyeama; Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva; Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Olamilekan Adegbite; and the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kolo Kyari are all expected to be on Buhari’s entourage.