The Federal Government has expanded and reconstituted the ministerial steering committee (SteerCo) of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR).
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Petroleum resources Folasade Yemi-Esan said in a statement Friday that the SteerCo had been expanded to accommodate other agencies of Government as well as MPR as the NGFCP moved into the implementation phase.
The new agencies now involved include the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Environment and the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). Premised on that, the committee has now changed from Ministerial to Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee.
The statement also noted that Andrew Ogu Agi is the alternate chairman of the Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee (SteerCo).
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Agi is Director, Special duties in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. His role as alternate chairman is to preside over the SteerCo meetings in the absence of the Permanent Secretary
The new members of the NGFCP Inter-Ministerial committee are: Mkpa A. Bassey (Deputy Director – Oil and Gas), representing the Ministry of Finance; Abbas Suleiman (Deputy Director – Environmental Assessment Department), representing the Ministry of Environment and Usman S. Pindar, (Manager Nigeria Content & Industry Collaboration Department), representing the executive secretary of the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF).
Others are Olusanya Bajomo – Deputy Director, Gas Monitoring and Regulations, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), and Esther Ifejika, Director Gas, Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR).
The statement also announced the submission of the evaluation report by the NGFCP Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) of the Statement of Qualification (SOQ) exercise in response to the Request for Qualification (RfQ) package of the NGFCP as well as submission of a report by the Independent Observers Group (IOG).
The Independent Observers Group (IOG), the statement said, concluded that the PEC conducted the SOQ evaluation process with integrity, transparency and sufficient rigour such that there were no “red flags” identified and therefore the evaluation has been a job well done.
Recall that the NGFCP Programme Management Office (PMO) in the MPR announced that about 240 SOQs were received. Former Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum Resources – Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, on 11th April 2019 appointed and inaugurated a Proposal Evaluation Committee (PEC) and an Independent Observers Group (IOG).
Overall, the NGFCP has the potential of generating approximately US$3.5 billion of inward investment. The potential GDP impact is estimated at plus US$1 billion per annum. It could potentially unlock 2 – 3 LNG trains, or around 3000 MW electricity generation as well as generate circa 600,000 MT of LPG per year giving 6 Million households access to clean energy through LPG.
The programme could also bring an inflow of new infrastructure players to enable gas uptake and usage in previously unreachable regions and business development from gas companies to unlock new domestic markets for gas.
It would be noted that the NGFCP Inter-Ministerial Steering Committee will now review the SOQ report submitted by the PEC and the report submitted by the Independent Observers Group and submit their recommendation to the Permanent Secretary/Minister of State, Petroleum Resources for approval. The general public and all applicants will be advised as soon as possible thereafter how many of the 240 applicants have been successful. Successful applicants will be invited to submit their proposals for flare gas utilisation through the Request for Proposals (RfP) phase of the NGFCP.
