ABUJA, Nigeria

Nigeria will be able to send more liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Europe by winter, the country’s minister of state for petroleum resources said Thursday.

Timipre Sylva told the Gastech 2022 conference in Milan, Italy his country is currently delaying additional gas deliveries because of security problems, however, it would build a pipeline for Nigerian gas through Algeria to Europe.

Sylva said Nigeria would soon decide on the investment to build the infrastructure and the project will likely cost more than $10 billion.

"Nigeria and Algerian state oil companies would be involved in this process and other private investors have also shown interest,” he said.

Nigeria, whose oil reserves hit nearly 37 billion barrels, has 3.1% of the world's reserves.

The country, which is among the top 15 countries in crude oil production, ranks eighth in oil reserves and sixth in oil exports.

*Writing by Seda Sevencan​​​​​​​