The President of the Nigerian Gas Association, NGA, Ed Ubong, expressed optimism about the growing adoption of Compressed Natural Gas, CNG, as an alternative source of energy nationally. He made this observation during a panel session themed: “Harnessing Opportunities in the Nigerian Gas Sector” at the recently concluded Nigerian Oil & Gas Conference in Abuja.
To this end, he called for Federal Parastatals to switch over to Gas Generators for Power.
He acknowledged that despite the gas scarcity that the country is currently experiencing, progress is being made, however, by working the decade of gas holistic action plan involving all the critical stakeholders in the country, the narrative will change, and the investment made by all will yield dividends.
Ubong said: “We are making progress in deepening gas consumption across the country. The private stakeholders are doing their part as evidenced in the massive projects being commissioned. FG is also encouraging the adoption of gas as demonstrated in the launch of 20 gas-powered buses by the Head of the Civil Service to convey civil servants from their abodes to their offices in Abuja. There is still CNG input pricing concerns raised by CNG operators to enable the sector which needs to be addressed urgently.
The downside, however, comes in form of the cooking gas scarcity that the nation is facing. We have been experiencing an acute shortage of gas for the past 6 months and its effect is keenly felt across all sectors, including cooking gas, gas to industries and gas to power plants for electricity generation. This poses a massive challenge to us in the gas sector as we need to accelerate the activation of initiatives that are in place to ensure that not only the domestic gas needs are met but also unlock the exportation of gas to other markets. These will undoubtedly boost the national economy as it will serve as a major source of revenue while reducing our oil dependency.”
He implored the government to fast-track clearing of the legacy gas supply debts in the power sector as it is an impediment to progress. Ubong maintained that as soon as the government removes this obstacle then it can hold private stakeholders accountable for the promises that they have made to bolster the sector with more gas supply.
Ubong noted that while members of NGA in tandem with the government are seeking innovative solutions for the sector, end-users also need to adopt gas as a viable and clean source of energy during this decade of gas. He commended the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board, NCDMB, for embracing gas generators to power its headquarter office in Bayelsa. He went a step further by asking FG to institutionalize gas-powered generator usage for public parastatals and private entities that use generators of more than 250kva capacity.
