Explorationist tasks government on proper gas pricing mechanism

The Federal Government has been urged to set a standard for selling gas in the country to enhance power supply in the country, as the commodity price needs to reflect the real opportunity value of gas development.

Speaking at the Technical Meeting Organised by the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), the Subsurface Manager at Green Energy, James Odunuga, argued that price must ensure financial viability of utilities and fair redistribution of resources to the poor.

Dwelling on a paper titled: “Green & Brown Field Development: A Case For Associated Gas Utilisation In Nigeria, Odunuga said set prices must be high enough to cover the cost of delivering the service, ensure adequate payment collection, protecting vulnerable industrial and household consumers from inflationary effect of higher prices

He also stressed the need to adopt non-pipeline technologies that can capture gas and transport to markets, adding that firm commitment from Government through introduction of fiscal incentives to encourage gas utilisation and flaring reduction.

He also called for alliance between government and private sector operators in the energy sub-sectors to ensure compliance with protocols on gas flaring and achieve Vision 2020 zero-flare-out policy.

He said: “There is a need for Government to introduce adequate energy prices, and investment stability for operators. There is the need for more studies to determine how the projects might best be structured institutionally and commercially, preparation of a detailed utilisation strategy and socioeconomic surveys to deal with pricing,” he added.

He attributed the acute power supply shortage in Sub-Saharan Africa to limited gas supply, transmission and distribution deficiencies and poor plant maintenance.

“Total installed power generation across the region is 68,000 MW less than Spain’s installed capacity.

There is 40,000MW in South Africa. One/third of Sub-Saharan Africa have access to electricity. Nigeria’s 40 per cent population have access to electricity, the rest rely on diesel generators. Nigeria has the world’s highest conc. of small-scale generators.