N250b treasury injection fails as gas production drops 4b cfm
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
Natural gas production in Nigeria slashed in 2022 despite a N250 billion intervention fund the treasury provided to boost 15 gas firms, as shown in a report by the Energy Institute in partnership with KPMG.
Natural gas output dipped by 4 billion cubic feet metres (cfm) between 2021 and 2022, following the trajectory of fluctuations from 2012 (39 billion cfm), 2020 (49 billion cfm), 2021 (45 billion cfm), and 2022 (40 billion cfm).
“The development happened despite a N250 billion intervention fund by FG [the federal government] through the Central Bank of Nigeria [CBN], out of which N130 billion was doled out to 15 companies for the construction of Compressed Natural Gas [CNG] conversion centres, the report said.
“The NGEP [National Gas Expansion Plan] was introduced by the Federal Government to make the CNG the fuel of choice for transportation and the Liquefied Petroleum Gas [LPG], the fuel of choice for domestic cooking, captive power and small industrial complexes.”
_________________________________________________________________
Related articles:
Gasification plants can end unstable power supply within 3 years, says varsity don
Gas flaring costs Nigeria $2.5b yearly
EU seeks to buy more gas from Nigeria
__________________________________________________________________
IPMAN laments exclusion of its members from loan scheme
After the commencement of the NGEP, the CBN also introduced a N250 billion intervention facility to help stimulate investment in the gas value chain as part of its efforts at facilitate the funding of critical sectors of the economy, per reporting by The PUNCH.
Among the 15 companies, which received a combined N130 billion, are
- Dangote Oil Refinery
- Nipco Gas
- Nipco Plc
- Hyde Energy
- Lee Engineering and Construction Company
- Pinnacle Oil and Gas FZE
- Transit Gas
- Almalgamated Oil Company Nigeria
- First Modular Gas Systems
- NOVAGAS
- Greenville Liquefied Natural Gas Company
- AP LPG
- MOB Integrated Services
- Gas Nexus
Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) President Chinedu Okoronkwo decried the exclusion of his members from the loan.
“None of my members got a kobo from the money. If such funds were given to the right people, by now, many stations would have commenced the CNG conversion centres and by now more than one million cars would have been converted,” he said.
The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) disclosed in August the country requires $20 billion yearly to implement the gas expansion plan to bridge the gap in gas infrastructure.
 between 2021 and 2022){kind=link}