Lagos — The Federal Government yesterday signed a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) for gas gathering with a Russian consortium, Gazx-Suntera.

The Minister of State for Energy (Gas), Mr Emmanuel Odusina, signed on behalf of the government. He said the agreement was timely, considering the gas wastage through flaring since the discovery of oil at Oloibiri, more than 50 years ago.

"This is the first time in the history of this nation that the Federal Government is focusing attention on gas as outlined by President Umaru Yar'Adua."Today, we are shouting gas, gas almost every where. It took the wise decision of the President to pronounce that attention must be paid to gas.

"Since oil was discovered at Oloibiri, there has notbeen a concerted effort to pay attention on how to harness the gas reserve that we have to the benefit of this nation," the minister said.

Odusina said he and the ministry was making efforts to ensure that these potentials were harnessed."We have gone round the whole world to let them realise the potential that Nigeria has with respect to gas."We did a road show in Nigeria which attracted a lot of investors. We did in London, Singapore and others and we were surprised at the huge response."So, today the whole world is aware of what Nigeria has to offer in terms of gas, to develop its economy," Odusina explained.

He said the country's gas resource was being harnessed to meet domestic needs, for export and supply to neighbouring countries."By neighbouring countries, I mean meeting the needs of the West Africa gas and trans-saharan gas pipelines."But of these critical areas, what is important to Nigeria is the domestic gas supply to enhance our own economic growth," he stressed.

The Minister said the MoU was not, however, binding as it was termed "generic". He explained that it would allow the investors two years to survey and decide on which of the three delineated areas to invest in.

"It's when the first stage has been concluded and the investors had identified the areas of interest that the second MOU termed"commercial" which is binding, would be signed," Odusina explained.

Mr. Shiv Khemka, Vice Chairman, Gazx-Suntera, who signed onbehalf of the company, said it would abide by all the rules and would do its best to deliver. Sen. Nimi Barigha-Amange, member, Petroleum Upstream Committee, said the National Assembly was ready to make laws to enable investors get good returns.