The European Union (EU) Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS Samuela Isopi says that Nigeria is an important partner for the oil and gas bloc.

Speaking on Monday in Abuja, the ambassador said the bloc was interested in strengthening cooperation, particularly in increasing its quantity of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

Also, she added that the union was interested in exporting the LNG produced in Nigeria to Europe.

Ms Isopi said that the recent visit of the Deputy Director-General Department for Energy, European Commission in Brussels, Matthew Baldwin, was to put things into perspective on the cooperation.

“The visit of our Deputy Director General for energy was, first of all, to give a message that Nigeria is already an important partner for Europe on oil and gas.

“Then, of course, we are interested in strengthening that cooperation, and in particular, in increasing the quantity of LNG gas, LNG that is produced in Nigeria and exported to Europe.

“So we’ve started the discussions, we know that there are challenges, like the situation in the Niger Delta, which has also an impact on the gas sector.

“Our first hope and common objective with Nigeria is for Nigeria to come back to the full capacity of its LNG production.

“We know that there are investments that are in the pipeline for Nigeria to be able to increase that capacity, and the message we gave was very clear.

“Europe is ready to work with Nigeria on this issue, so the conversation will continue. There is a big opportunity for Nigeria following the situation between Russia and Ukraine,” she said.

However, she said that the bloc was also reaching out to other countries and their partners.

According to here, the member states are also reaching out to other countries. It will be really a pity for Nigeria not to take advantage of this opportunity and “we really hope we will be able to do something concrete”.

The EU’s executive body had urged member states to slash their gas consumption by 15 per cent as it warned that a complete shutdown of Russian supplies was likely.

The EU has been scrambling to wean itself off Russian gas since the invasion of Ukraine, but is alarmed about a potential energy crisis this winter.

(NAN)