The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, on Tuesday, said only appropriate pricing for gas in Nigeria would create the required market for the commodity in the country.
NNPCL’s Group Chief Executive, Mele Kyari, disclosed this at an event in Abuja where the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority issued a domestic gas aggregation licence to the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria.
Kyari said, “We will deliver gas into the domestic market so that we can create that spark that our country needs to bring the revolution that everybody is waiting for, due to the recognition of the fact that we are a gas country with associated oil, and that we have done very little about the gas.
“But now we are ready for business and this business means that we have to create the infrastructure that will deliver gas into the domestic market. We have to create the market, and that can only happen if there is appropriate pricing for gas.
“We don’t want to enjoy anything except we have the right pricing for gas, so that people can pay their bills for the gas that they take, and we can produce the gas that comes into the market. Then enjoyment can come.”
He pointed out that Nigeria had adopted gas as its transition fuel and urged operators to work together to create the required gas infrastructure, market that would take the gas, and an economy that should be able to pay for it.
Meanwhile, Kyari revealed that the oil firm had signed an agreement for a floating gas project in Nigeria.
“Just today, we signed off a shareholders’ agreement on a floating LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) project that will bring in 1.8 million tonnes (of gas) per annum from production. But we are not going to stop there, we have a number of other initiatives,” the NNPCL boss stated.
On the licence to GACN, the Chief Executive Officer, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, said, “In line with Section 153 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, the authority may upon approval of an application and payment of prescribed fees, grant and issue a domestic gas aggregation licence.
“In line with the above, the application of GACN for domestic gas aggregation licence was approved after due consideration and upon the fulfilment of the requirements of the law.”
Ahmed explained that the licence would spur investment in the gas sector and would promote transparency in the industry, and described the gas firm as a catalyst for progress.
SOURCE: PUNCHNG
