INTERVIEW WITH MOLINARD
Gas, vector
of development Jean-Eric Molinard is passionate about Nigeria. The French man is quick to tell you that though he loved his stay in the Sultanate of Oman, Nigeria offers unique experiences that might just be difficult to get anywhere else in the world. His dream for a developed Nigerian oil and gas industry that will compete favourably with peers globally has seen him being part of national advisory committees for the industry. A graduate of the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de la Métallurgie et de l’Industrie des Mines de Nancy (School of Mines), Mr. Molinard is one expert on gas that can hold his own anywhere and at anytime. Currently he is the General Manager, Export Gas, Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited (TEPNG) and a member of the Board of Nigeria LNG Limited. For three years, 2007-2010, he was seconded from Total to the World Bank in Washington, D.C., as Advisor to the Global Gas Flaring Reduction (GGFR) partnership. The job entailed developing roadmaps with governments, NOCs, IOCs, legislators, regulators and all potential major natural gas users in the Middle East and Sub-Saharan Africa. The overall objective was to reduce or eliminate flaring of associated gas in upstream operations. Before that time, Jean-Eric had already had an idea of the Nigerian experience, both as Project Manager for development of an Independent Power Project to be carried out by Total JV, and as Gas Business Manager, that involved looking at the new Nigerian gas legislation (Downstream Gas Act, Gas Flaring Bill, Fiscal Bill, Gas Pricing, Gas Master Plan, etc) and also developing gas terms for deepwater gas. With a rich working experience and a long line of professional qualifications, it would be apt to describe Jean-Eric as being synonymous with gas, In this interview with the seasoned expert, our publication crew, Mohammed Al Sharji, Yemi Adeyemi and Elkanah Chawai, gets to see another perspective of the Nigerian oil and gas Industry.
What is your assessment of the Nigerian oil and gas Industry when compared to other markets you have been exposed to in your career? The oil and gas Industry is growing and there is still so much room for growth. If we look at the gas sector and how it has been in relation to other countries, in many instances, the key driver for gas utilisation to take off has either been the environment because of gas flaring - which is part of
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NLNG - The Magazine
what happens in Nigeria - or economical gas reserves which then prompts LNG projects. So Nigeria is not really different from any other country. There are countries ahead of Nigeria and there are countries Nigeria is ahead of. So all in all, I will say that the development and monetisation is not different in terms of timing as compared to other countries; I will say it is average, it is not lagging behind or way advanced.
Just recently, the federal government decided to shift focus to encourage domestic use. How does this move affect the development of long term plans that have been on the drawing board for other LNG products in the pipeline? I was very lucky that I attended the fist meeting on gas master plan that took place in 2005. In my own understanding, gas-to-power was the main driver of the shift and encouragement to send gas to the