More accolades have continued to greet the activation of the national gas flare commercialisation programme by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) as Nigeria to kick off gas flare commercialisation from 45 sites.
In his remarks at the Lagos gas stakeholders meeting, the Director of DPR, Sarki Auwalu the 45 sites would create an opportunity not only for existing investors who qualified for the programmes, but also drive competition in the industry.
He averred that “Before now it was gas to power, but it is now gas to people of Nigeria. This is the year of gas and all that is needed is to guarantee access to gas and utilizing the excess gas, making sure Nigerians feel that there is gas resource the country is blessed with.
“Before now there is no unified gas sales agreement, but with programmes such as this, it can bring about an equitable gas pricing across the gas value chain and access to all the gas related industries because we have set up a process in which you will equate the price, maintain the access of the gas, making it easy and simple unifying the approach all over,” Auwalu said.
Corroborating the Director’s position, the Deputy Director, Gas, Dr. Musa Zagi, said apart from the environmental impact, the gas would be available to the people at a much cheaper rate compared to conventional fuels.
Zagi added that “By the time we get these LPGs and CNGs to the market, we will be able to address the issue of deforestation. It is a cleaner energy and it will also provide employment to the teeming unemployed youths in the country.
“We have been flaring gas at 11 per cent for almost seven years. This is a deliberate effort of the government to ensure that gas flaring has come to stop,” the Deputy Director noted.
