Chichi Emenike, head of Gas Ventures at Neconde Energy Limited says Nigeria can easily transform into a gas driven industrial economy if government puts the policy and legal framework in place that will encourage investments in the sector.
Speaking at a media briefing in Lagos recently, Emenike lamented that the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) which is a backbone to the achievement of the National Gas policy has suffered legislative delays and limited consideration from the executive arm of government for decades.
She said the delay in passing the PIB sends a wrong signal to potential investors thus limiting the realization of industry’s full potentials.
She however, admitted that Nigeria has made some progress in reducing gas flaring in the country due largely to Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme – a platform to attract investments and develop a transparent market mechanism through a competitive procurement process for allocating Gas flares.
“This programme has significantly reduced the level of Gas flaring to below 11% as against the 60% over 10years ago but the continuous flaring of over 700mmscf/day from about 178 sites is still a huge waste of the Nation’s resources,” she said.
Emenike noted that issues around gas pricing and appropriate tariff structures in the power sector continued to discourage the needed investment that the sector requires.
“Gas prices as they are today are not market reflective of current realities and again a big consideration for investment by potential investors,” she added.
Josephine Okojie
