Michael James
Abu Dhabi, UAE — Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Mr. Ekperikpe Ekpo, has reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to creating an enabling operational and fiscal environment to support investments in the upstream, midstream and downstream gas sectors.
The minister stated this while on a panel tagged “Energy Talk” at the ongoing ADIPEC 2023 conference and exhibition in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He said the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is poised to promote business around Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources.
“This is evident in the actions of Mr. President when he split the Ministry of Petroleum Resources into Oil & Gas respectively. This singular action is a testament to President Tinubu’s resolve to promote gas commercialization in Nigeria for export and domestic utilization,” Ekpo said.
The minister, who is the head of the Nigerian delegation to the event, listed several initiatives relating to government’s action to promote and support gas-based industrialisation and decarbonisation agenda with the corporation and support of the organized private sector.
Top amongst these initiatives are: Decade of Gas (Upstream, Midstream and Downstream); getting cooking gas to every home and CNG for vehicles; gas flare commercialisation programme and gas to petrochemicals.
“Our ministry is working with the organized private sector to roll out over two million CNG conversions kits for free within the next nine months to push the utilization of CNG as main fuel for vehicles nationwide. This initiative is aimed at converting 10 million vehicles from PMS to CNG in the next 36 months,” he said.
Ekpo said key benefits of the initiative include, creating over 100000 jobs for Nigerians, increasing governments savings from reduced subsidy payout for the importation of PMS, reducing carbon emission following the utilization of clean gas to drive internal combustion engines.
The minister informed the audience about specific policy changes targeted at gas pricing regime, non associated gas (NAG) acreage development, and review of the terms of the production sharing contracts (PSC).
“These are all aimed at attracting investments of more than $20 billion into the country for NAG offshore and deep water (DW) acreage development,” he said.
“The ministry is working closely with her respective parastatals to get these reforms across to the
upper legislative chamber for approval and subsequently for President endorsements,” he added.
