NUPRC Ramps Up Plan to Commercialise, End Gas Flaring in 48 Sites

*Holds bidders’ conference for 139 qualified entities

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) yesterday continued its plan to end gas flaring and commercialise flared molecules through the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) by organising a bidders’ conference for the 139 shortlisted entities.
Speaking at the event in Abuja, the Chief Executive of the upstream regulatory agency, Mr. Gbenga Komolafe, noted that when it becomes operational, the plan would ensure that the country benefits maximally from its premium mineral resource.

Describing it as a milestone event, Komolafe stated that the programme was organised to intimate all qualified applicants, partners, sponsors and technology providers on the structure of the ‘Request for Proposal’ (RFP) part of the process.
He pointed out that this would provide further guidance on upcoming programme of activities while listening and collating feedback from all participants towards optimising the RFP phase.

While congratulating the applicants for their successful performance during the Statement of Qualification (SOQ) phase of the bid process, Komolafe explained NUPRC received over 300 applications from interested applicants but 139 were adjudged qualified/successful following the evaluation exercise conducted in line with the published criteria.
 But he stressed that that was only a start of the journey as the real deal was in making a robust and competitive proposal, with demonstrable evidence for capacity to deliver on the flare monetisation projects, in line with the terms of the plan.

He explained that it remained a very defining moment in the history of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, declaring that apart from forestalling the deleterious impacts of gas flaring on the environment, the programme also ends the wanton wastage of Nigeria’s premium economic resource.
“In today’s carbon constrained world, where fossil fuel is becoming less and less popular, in view of issues of climate change, natural gas has assumed a stature of significant importance as the bridging fuel for many oil and gas producing nations.

“For us here in Nigeria, gas has been adopted as our transition fuel to drive the industrialisation of the Nation’s economy in line with the expectations of the Decade of Gas initiatives launched by the government.
“Additionally, the NGFCP initiative is also targeted at creating investment and employment opportunities and encouraging increased capital inflow to the Nigerian oil and gas sector.  Indeed, the value derivable is multifaceted and aligns with the focus areas of our sustainable development goals,” he stated.
According to Komolafe, the NGFCP 2022 was first among series of competitive auctions whereby flare gas that would otherwise have been directed to flare will be put on sale by the commission to interested entities as prospective title holders of the flare gas.

“In this programme, prospective bidders are expected to submit bid proposals in line with the requirements and terms of the RFP, covering such areas as technical, commercial, financial, and other relevant information regarding the project that the qualified applicant intends to develop.
“Such projects may include a plan to use the gas as fuel or feedstock or both for products to be disposed of in either the domestic or international markets. All proposals from bidders will be judged strictly on their merits according to the criteria published in RFP document which has since been uploaded on the NGFCP portal,” he reiterated.

He added that at the second phase of the programme, tagged the RFP phase, qualified applicants will have access to the data room for data prying and leasing, including suite of commercial agreements, for the 48 gas flare sites on offer.
The precise flare sites, volumes, and compositions of gas offered, he noted, will be accessed in the data room to be made available to qualified applicants via the NGFCP 2022 portal upon payment of relevant fees as prescribed in the RFP.

“The data room sessions will be held virtually to provide flexibility and comfort to all participants. Please rest assured that the commission shall ensure an open, transparent, competitive, and non-discriminatory bidding process in line with the provisions of section 74 of Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021
“It is important to remark that the NGFCP 2022 is not prescriptive as regards the choice of technology, product output or destination, however, it is favourably disposed to bidders who may consider clustering as this will indicate greater mop up of the flare gas by a proposal.

“In view of the dynamism of our industry, we shall continue to provide a predictable and enabling regulatory environment to qualified applicants in line with our technical and commercial statutory mandates with a view to optimising the commercialisation of these flare gas resources,” he noted.
Also speaking, a representative of the United States Aid (USAID) working with the Nigerian Power Sector Programme (NPSP), Babatunde Gbajumo,  said the organisation has a power Africa programme that brings together the collective resources of private and public sector aiming to increase access to electricity and over 3 million connections.

He said the programme would increase grid and off-grid connections and bring over 1,000 mw to a financial close  and to help achieve Nigeria’s climate projections as well as remove millions of tonnes of carbon.