The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMPDRA) is set to release a new gas pricing template following approval from the president.
Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer, NMDPRA made this known while speaking at the Decade of Gas secretariat launch on Wednesday.
He said that the new template will be released soon subject to further discussions with the adviser to the president on energy, Olu Verheijen.
Ahmed said the establishment of the decade of gas secretariat was necessary to further accentuate the importance of the project.
Ed Ubong, coordinator Decade of Gas secretariat, said amid the launch of a resource center to integrate the initiatives around gas, the need to provide comfort to investors by clearing the legacy arrears which falls between $700 million to $1 billion has become a key priority as well as the provision of infrastructure to aid the supply of gas to the market.
He added that there is also need to build capacity for gas in Nigeria, noting that all stakeholders are collaborating to ensure Nigeria moves very quickly and begin to get value for the gas resources, improve overall livelihoods while supporting Nigeria’s industrialisation.
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Reiterating what the NMDPRA chief said about gas pricing template, he said the oil regulator has been working on gas pricing over the last one year and has consulted with various stakeholders, including the sponsors, the operators, even the end user customers, and the power supply companies.
Ubong, who is also the president of the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), said that towards the end of the process, the domestic base price will be announced after seeking approval from the president.
Nicholas Ogufere, investment manager at Chevron urged the Federal Government to clear the legacy debts in order to establish investor’s confidence in the industry.
He added that there is also need to ensure that a cost reflective gas pricing mechanism, after which fiscal incentives required for investors to develop and execute projects will be prioritised.
“And when those incentives are agreed and understood, it will be applied to all other projects coming behind, when these projects are developed, you need to bring them to the market but make sure you have the infrastructure to make that happen,” he said.
