Stakeholders canvass commercialisation of flared gas for Niger Delta development
Stakeholders have called for the commercilisation of flared gas through a rounded policy well managed by the government for accelerated development of the Niger Delta in particular and the entire country in general.
They made the appeal during the third NESH Oil and Gas Roundtable at the weekend in Owerri, the Imo State capital.
Emeka Ugwu-Oju, who spoke at the event with the theme, “Nigerian Entrepreneurs and the Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme”, noted that the conference enabled stakeholders and experts to exchange views on how indigenous entrepreneurs could be positive enablers of the commercialisation project.
The participants also brainstormed on maximising the potential of the industry to catalyse a private sector-led development model over the next 10 years to complement the current public sector-led module for faster development of the Niger Delta as well as ensure efficient and transparent utilisation of current and future oil and gas proceeds.
Ugwu -Oju said: “It is believed that 80 per cent of gas currently produced for the domestic market goes to the power market which at the most seems dysfunctional.”
Also speaking, Mrs. Victoria Adepeju, who represented the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Operating Officer, Yusuf Usman, stated: “There is need to further invest in what we call associated gas which is ongoing anyway. So, all things bring to bear the price of gas. The price must be affordable by all up-takers It must be affordable in Nigeria and West Africa.”
In a related development, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), Peace Point Development Foundation (PPDF), has deplored the frequent oil spills, gas flaring, burning of impounded petroleum products by the Joint Task Force (JTF) as well as mining activities, floods and corruption in the polity, stating that they pose a serious threat to the peaceful co-existence of the nation.
In a press statement yesterday in Calabar by its Programme and Gender Officer, Okoho Ene, in commemoration of this year’s International Day of Peace, the group urged the Federal Government to “strengthen and enforce our national policies and plans such as the national policy on drought and desertification; drought preparedness plan; national biodiversity strategy and action plan; national forest policy; national policy on erosion; flood control and coastal zone management and others.”
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