Presidential C’ttee Secures Concessionary Pricing for Mobility CNG from NMDPRA

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Presidential Compressed Natural Gas Initiative (PCNGI) yesterday disclosed that it had secured a concessionary pricing for mobility Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).

It stated that the NMDPRA also reiterated its commitment to supporting the efforts of the federal government through the PCNGI.

The programme is aimed at managing, financing and developing domestic CNG vehicles for Nigeria’s transportation market, while ensuring the support and mass adoption of CNG-fuelled vehicles  in the country.

It is expected to do this by providing a special concessionary pricing to mobility CNG under its pricing framework for gas in the country, a statement by the Programme Director/Chief Executive PCNGI, Michael Oluwagbemi, stated.

The statement added that the message was conveyed  in a letter from the Authority Chief Executive (ACE), Mr. Farouk Ahmed dated April 20, 2024 to the Programme Director of the PCNGI.

In line with this, the NMPDRA said it had designated mobility CNG a special status, which will serve as a subset of Gas-to-Commercial ( GtC), and also entitle it to Gas-Based Industry (GBI ) pricing categorisation for an initial period of five years.

The NMDPRA said that this was renewable for another five years only in accordance with the provisions of Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.

The GBI pricing of $1.57/MMBtu is set much lower than ordinary $2.42 and $2.92 for power and commercial buyers respectively.

The committee led by the Chair of the Federal Inland Revenue (FIRS) Dr. Zacch Adedeji, had initially requested for strategic gas allocation for mobility-focused CNG projects, in a form of pricing concession.

 This milestone concession, the committee said, is a significant achievement of the PCNGI collaborative work with NMPDRA.

“This concession is expected to spur investors confidence and commercial activities in the nascent market while promoting government policy aspiration for the sector.

“The PCNGI calls on all stakeholders in the sector to take full advantage of this concessionary pricing model for mobility CNG, and recommit themselves to the future of a gas-driven transportation sector.

“This  future lowers food and energy inflation, while ensuring a cleaner, cheaper, safer and more reliable energy for powering the economy forward in line with the vision of President Bola Tinubu,” the organisation said.