U.S., Nigeria plan first energy security dialogue – Envoy

A Geoffrey Pyatt, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of Energy Resources, said the U.S. and Nigeria are working closely toward convening a maiden Energy Security Dialogue (ESD) in 2024.

Amb. Pyatt announced this at a digital news conference on Wednesday following a U.S.-Angola energy security dialogue to strengthen U.S.-Africa Energy Partnerships in Luanda, Angola.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Angola ESD was the first in-person dialogue in sub-Saharan Africa to be held during U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration.

Pyatt said that the U.S.-Nigeria ESD would target a broad agenda, including decarbonisation of fossil energy production, acceleration of clean energy deployment, and liquified natural gas.

He said other issues to be discussed during the event would be the challenges of the global gas market, critical minerals, energy access, grid interconnections, and partnerships.

The U.S. envoy said Deputy Secretary of State, Kurt Campbell, had discussed the prospective dialogue with Nigerian government officials during his recent visit to Nigeria, after which he took it up.

“And then I followed up at the Corporate Council for Africa summit meeting in Dallas just a few weeks ago, where I joined Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield for our meeting with the Nigerian foreign minister.

“So, I think our governments are agreed that we want this to happen. We want it to happen in 2024, and I’m hopeful that we will have an announcement in the next couple of weeks about the specific timing.

“Much like the dialogue with Angola, our dialogue with Nigeria would be built around a broad agenda, including decarbonization of fossil energy production, acceleration of clean energy deployment, LNG and the global gas market, critical minerals, issues of energy access and grid interconnections,” he said.(NAN)