By Kunle KALEJAYE

The Nigeria Gas Association, NGA, has urged the Federal Government to engage the Organised Private Sector, OPS and other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector in a comprehensive dialogue on the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB.

The dialogue is expected to address all differences of concerned parties and ultimately enact a law which would reflect national aspirations as well as protect all stakeholders’ interests.

The association also charged the federal government to commence a reduction in its commercial participation in the gas and power sectors, and rather focus more on regulatory supervision and the role of providing favourable environment to investors in the value chain.

To foster growth that would serve as a catalyst for national development, the NGA said government should institute an investor-friendly fiscal regime and pricing policy and seek a new approach for Domestic Gas Supply Obligation implementation to enable the required investment in increasing supply capacity.

In a communiqué issued at the end of the 8th International Gas Conference and Exhibition held in Abuja, the NGA observed that with proven gas reserves of up to 187TCF and one-third of Africa’s gas reserves, Nigeria is qualified to be in the League of Nations, which has achieved gas-driven industrialisation.

Regrettably, NGA noted that Nigeria has not fully exploited the opportunities to leverage these resources to achieve industrialisation through extensive domestic penetration and development of gas- based industries and the establishment of additional export- oriented projects.

President, NGA, Dr Chima Ibeneche, however noted that although government had embarked on an extensive gas network infrastructure backbone across the east, west and northern parts of the country, the state of infrastructure and issues relating to fiscal, financing, pricing and regulatory framework were still major challenges to gas export, utilisation and penetration in the country.

“The emergence of other gas plants since NLNG such as Brass LNG and OK LNG even though the vision to have major LNG export terminals in key coastal areas was yet to be realised.

“The commendable achievements being made in Nigerian content development, especially in job creation and human capacity development, since the enactment of the NCD Act and the creation of its Monitoring Board.

“Discoveries of large gas reserves in other African countries and the emergence of shale gas is tightening the window of opportunity for Nigeria,” Ibeneche said.

The conference, while expressing delight at the progress made in the Gas Revolution, observed that a lot of work still needed to be done, especially against the background of intense global competition in the gas industry.

It therefore recommended that government should expedite development of infrastructure to allow transportation of gas to all parts of the country.