Nigeria Gas Production declines despite N250bn intervention

Nigeria saw a sharp decline in natural gas production last year, despite the infusion of a N250 billion intervention fund.
The nation’s natural gas production fell by 4 billion cubic feet metres between 2021 and 2022, according to data from the Energy Institute and KPMG.
In 2021 and 2022, the production reached 45 billion cubic metres and 40 billion cubic metres, respectively, after growing steadily from 39 billion cubic feet metres in 2012 to 49 billion cubic feet metres in 2020.
Despite the Federal Government’s intervention through the Central Bank of Nigeria, which provided N130 billion to 15 companies for the construction of CNG conversion centres, the decline still transpired.
The goal of the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP) was to replace liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in home cooking, captive power plants and small industrial complexes with compressed natural gas (CNG).
The companies that received a combined N130 billion from the intervention fund include Dangote Oil Refinery, Nipco Gas Ltd, Nipco Plc, Hyde Energy Ltd, Lee Engineering and Construction Company, Pinnacle Oil and Gas FZE, Transit Gas Ltd, Almalgamated Oil Company Nig Ltd, First Modular Gas Systems Ltd, NOVAGAS Ltd, Greenville Liquefied Natural Gas Company, AP LPG Limited, MOB Integrated Services Limited, Delta State Government, and Gas Nexus Ltd.
The Senate Committee on Gas, chaired by Jarigbe Agom Jarigbe, has summoned these companies to provide progress reports on the projects.
The committee’s invitation states, “The invited companies are required to appear with their progress reports, stating location or projects and the current status of the projects.”
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria’s president, Chinedu Okoronkwo, expressed his displeasure that his members were not included in the loan.
He asserted that his members would have converted over a million cars to CNG models by now if they had been included.
Nigeria needs to spend $20 billion a year on gas infrastructure to close the infrastructure gap and carry out the planned gas expansion, according to the Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, which was launched in August.
A comprehensive strategy to tackle issues in the gas sector is imperative, as concerns regarding the efficacy of the intervention measures are heightened by the declining gas production.

Source: allnewsng.com

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