Why Nigerians Should Massively Adopt Gas Utilization-NMDPRA

By Innocent Onoh

Nigerians have been advised to utilised more of gas than Petrol and diesel in order to reduce the nation’s dependence on hydrocarbon and to tackle global warming as well as climate change.

This will also help to reposition the economy for sustainable growth and accelerate job creation as gas is believed to be the future of the nation.

The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Mr. Farouk Ahmed gave the advice at a stakeholders’ engagement on Gas Utilization in Lagos.

Mr. Ahmed explained that the forum was to make consumers of petroleum products aware of the comparative advantages among the different fuels particularly gas , which he said was Nigeria’s transition fuel.

He said to promote gas investment, the Federal Government had put in place various initiatives and policy framework, including the National Gas Expansion Programme and the Decade of Gas Programme.

While observing that the Petroleum Industry Act ,PIA, (2021) has also enabled investments in the industry, Mr. Ahmed who was represented by the Executive Director, Distribution, System,Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, Mr. Ogbugo Ukoha, expressed joy that the efforts were yielding significant results .

In a presentation, the NMDPRA boss noted that Nigeria was blessed with abundant gas reserve, enough to last the nation for over 90 years and that with more utilization, the nation would be richer and the environment safer, adding that gas is much cleaner than other petroleum derivatives.

Mr Ahmed said another benefit of gas utilization was it cost effectiveness by as much as 40 percent

He, however, advised gas users to be properly licensed so as to partake from the numerous benefits, including ensuring safety of their facilities and having regular supplies of the product from the authority.

According to him, “Today we target the heavy end users of diesel, many of whom are without what we describe as a category A license, even though they’re handling quite high volumes of diesel and this includes factories, hotels, residential estates, schools and other businesses.

“First of all, we’ll encourage them strongly to come within the regulatory space because only within that regulatory oversight can you guarantee operational and technical safety while also urging them to begin to consider a conversion from diesel to gas and there are many derivatives of gas.

The LNG LPG CNG, propane and butane presents much environment friendly way to go.

“Regarding licenses, the authority inherited quite a major paradigm shift from manual to automated processes and we’re increasing the portals and its capacity. sooner than later you will eliminate all or reduce to the barest minimum the human elements within that process.

“There are aspects of it that we can’t do without, for instance, site inspections and all. Again, it’s a priority for us that licenses are considered within the fastest possible period”.

” We’ve just concluded the gazetting of 12 regulations. We invited stakeholders to come and participate and there are some feedbacks we’ve taken that have been reflected in the regulations which deal with the licensing regimes, the conditions for those procedures, the sanctions and the penalties. Again, the authority is strong on collaboration and we listen to the operators reflect the inputs and everything”.

Delivering the keynote address on behalf of the Executive Director, Distribution, System,Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, Mr. Ogbugo Ukoha, the
Coordinator South West of NMDPRA ,Mr. Ayo Cardoso said many of the stakeholders were not only the heaviest consumers of diesel but have also been identified as operating outside the regulatory oversight which is not in accordance with the PIA Act.

He said the engagement was to also enlighten them on the need to urgently obtain the requisite petroleum storage and take advantage of the evolving opportunities in the gas value chain for sustainable business growth.

Some of the participants called on the authorities to make the process of licensing seamless by removing bureaucratic bottlenecks and reducing the cost.