Decade of Gas: Stakeholders Move to Address Challenges Limiting Domestic Utilisation

Peter Uzoho

Stakeholders in the Nigerian gas sector have stepped up measures aimed at realising the purpose and gains of the ‘Decade of Gas’ policy of the federal government, with key milestones set for achievement in this 2023.

The federal government had in March 2021 declared January 2021 to December 31, 2030 as Nigeria’s Decade of Gas, a period the government aspires to power the economy, industrialise the country and address energy poverty using gas as an enabler.

THISDAY had reported penultimate week that the programme stagnated at a paltry five per cent implementation rate as at 2022, two years after take off.
But providing updates on the effort being made by the stakeholders to move the needle in its implementation, the President of the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) and Managing Director of Shell Gas Limited, Mr. Ed Ubong said a secretariat had been set up for the the project in Abuja.

With the support of the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, he said NGA was driving the agenda and that the programme would be owned by the industry, which would work to deliver key milestones in 2023.

“Today, what is the direction? The NGA under the auspices of the minister is driving the Decade of Gas agenda because this is now going to be owned by the industry.

“So, we are setting up a secretariat sitting next to the NMDPRA in Abuja, which will own the Decade of Gas imperatives, set laid down plans and work with all industry players to deliver key milestones.

“What are those critical milestones in 2023? First of all, we want to be able to see the debts owed by gas suppliers totally cleared out, that’s important. Two, we also want to get clarity around pricing, this will still ultimately come from NMDPRA.

“But we are now sitting next to each other. So, what they need, we as industry will provide because at the end of the day, we want to get clarity around pricing for gas across the value chain,” Ubong said.

He said the third issue on the table was to unlock incremental gas supply, noting that Nigeria needs gas but there was not enough gas to meet that demand.