By Ediri Ejoh

Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) has called for a harmonization in the Domestic Supply Obligation (DSO), contained in the draft National Gas Policy rolled out by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources.

It explained that the policy should be such that boldly stipulates willing buyer-willing seller.

NGA stated: “While we support the allocation of DSO to producing companies, we believe that the national objective of guaranteeing sufficient gas volumes to the domestic market can be better achieved if such DSO policy is implemented on a willing-buyer-willing-seller basis.”

The association argued that it is now relying on the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria Limited (GACN) process which it claimed, cannot guarantee the desired volumes to the domestic market.

According to the President, NGA, Dada Thomas, “Rolling out a new policy with an indeterminate transition period 8 years after, is far from encouraging particularly as the triggers for the wholesale market regime and end of regulated pricing suggested in section 4.3.8 of the draft policy seem to be very far fetched and mostly unachievable within the short to medium term.

“We strongly support a move towards deregulated pricing on a willing-buyer willing-seller basis while retaining the existing regulatory approvals by NERC of prices for gas to power transactions”.