As Nigeria marks 53 years of independence today, one of the salient issues bordering the citizenry is the development of its gas resources. This is because despite the abundant gas reserve estimated at about 187 trillion cubic feet and a further undiscovered potential estimated at 600 trillion cubic feet, gas is not yet available to every household or industrial concern in the country. In the last few years, the country has launched its Gas Master Plan, GMP, aimed at improving its gas supply from the current one billion cubic feet per day to about 10bcf/day by 2020. In spite of the master plan, Nigerians are yet to feel the impact of the policy. Thus eliciting the pertinent question, how has the country fared in its gas development since independence? Prof. Joseph Ezigbo, managing director, Falcon Petroleum, a company that has handled many gas projects, said the federal government has achieved about 30 percent in its gas development plan since independence. He explained that there is still a lot to be done as gas business in Nigeria is at its infancy. “It is at an embryonic stage. But we need laws. We need policies to drive it. And those policies are not there. The PIB is a good starting point. The moment we provide a level playing field, within two years, it will move from 30 percent to 70 percent. The signs are there,” he said. Ezigbo also said that the GMP is a good concept that needs to be strengthened with enabling law for it to function properly. “The gas master plan is a beautiful plan, but it also needs the PIB, to give it teeth. You know there is no need to have mouth and you give it meat to eat and there are no teeth to bite and chew it. If we create a beautiful gas master plan, we need the PIB and that would form the teeth to chew the master plan,” he said. Potential not fully developed Similarly, the Executive Secretary of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, stated that Nigeria has not developed its gas potentials since independence, which accounts for low gas consumption in the country. “We have not developed at all. Consumption of gas in Nigeria is below 20 percent. Ghana, Benin and Togo are consuming more gas than Nigeria. It is a shame that in 2013 we still see our women carry firewood instead of gas. If gas is used more in households, the demand for kerosene will reduce,” he said. Olawore also said that in Ghana, Benin and Togo, many vehicles run on gas unlike in Nigeria where vehicles run on petrol. Mr. Ola Alokolaro, a lawyer and consultant in oil and gas shares a similar opinion with Olawore. For him, the development of gas in Nigeria since independence is less than 10 percent. And to attract investors to the sub-sector, there has to be liberalized fiscal regimes. However, he said that when the production has reached a certain level, taxation comparable to international standards of gas producing nations can be introduced. According to him, “You cannot start taxing in a comparable manner with established gas producing countries when there are no infrastructure yet. A lot more needs to be done to facilitate private sector-driven development. For a country that is known more of gas than oil, we cannot boast of many gas products,” he said. Mr. Babatunde Ogun, President of Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, scored Nigeria low in its gas development. “I will score the country low in this aspect because some of our industrial and manufacturing companies still rely on low pour fuel oil, LPFO, and Automated Gas Oil (AGO) for their production, while the country has not fully harnessed gas for energy generation. This can be fully taken care of if the government and the National Assembly can pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) into law because the issue of Domestic Gas (DomGas) is incorporated in the Bill,” he said. Projects’ spread Furthermore, the few gas projects embarked upon by the federal government is said to be lopsided to the exclusion of certain parts of the country. This has not gone down well with the perceived victims of the marginalization. For example, a socio-cultural organization under the auspices of The Hilltop Club 1972, Lagos called for a total review of the gas infrastructure in the Nigeria, stating that there is a deliberate plan to de-industrialize and impoverish a section of the country. The group through its president, Mike Chukwu, and Secretary, Boni Obieze, alleged that the federal government either by omission or commission tends to apply wrong fundamentals skewed against the South-east, and indeed the North-eastern parts of country in its gas master plan for the country. The group said: “The implementation of the gas master plan dramatizes the deliberate attempt of both the planners and the implementers of gas infrastructure development in Nigeria to de-industrialize and impoverish the future of the Eastern zone of the country.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 14:51:12 +0000
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