The Chairman of the Senate Committee on Gas, Jarigbe Jarigbe, has revealed the plan of the committee to summon officials of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited over no funding for the exploration and development of new frontier acreages. This was revealed during a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and his team. Recall that the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, 2021, introduced the Frontier Exploration Fund to support exploration and development in Nigeria’s frontier acreages. Some of these acreages are situated in areas/ regions like Anambra, Benue, Dahomey, Bida, Sokoto, Chad, and other areas where hydrocarbon exploration is yet to take place.
The PIA makes provisions for the funding of such ventures. The fund is to consist of 30 percent of NNPC’s “profit oil and profit gas” from various contracts, which will be used to pay for the exploration and development activities. Members of the committee earlier noted that gas was becoming the main alternative source of funding for nations blessed with it. Nigeria they explained can not afford to miss out on the race to fully benefit from this God-given resource hence the need to make hay while the sun still shines.
Earlier, the CEO OF NUPRC Gbenga Komolafe, reechoed this sentiment in his intervention. He said, “Gas is very crucial in the revenue generation of our country, just like oil, it is equally very critical. “Aside from the fact that gas has been recognized as a transition fuel and for us in the commission, we focus on rapping up our gas production.”
Kimolafe stated that Nigeria has “37 barrels of crude oil as it relates to gas, reserve number of 208 tcl of gas that makes us the largest gas reserve in Africa and the ninth globally.” He claimed that Nigeria was gradually gaining strength in terms of gas production even though efforts were put in place to ensure production which would amount to revenue generation.
The NUPRC Chief Executive further said, “The commission at the moment is trying to look at fields that have undeveloped gas opportunities, and as an internal initiative; we have been able to identify all those fields of uncommitted gas.
“We intend that by the time we finish with the ongoing engagement with the industry, we would be able to take those gas molecules into the basket and in line with the PIA and other provisions to transparently auction those fields. “We believe that exercise will catalyze us as a nation to effectively derive the benefit of gas instead of just keeping those reserves.”
He, however, emphasized that the major challenge militating against gas production was a lack of funds as well as the requisite infrastructure.
