The
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, has revealed that
Nigeria will award contracts for its flared gas by the third quarter of the
year. No fewer than 800 companies had bid for management of 176 gas flare sites
in the country with 226 bidders having paid the stipulated fees.

The Minister lamented that Nigeria
had over the years failed to properly utilize its gas resources for the
development of the economy particularly through fertilizer production, thereby
losing about $1 billion annually to gas flare. Hence, the government was
working hard to stop gas flaring in the country by the year 2020, 10 years
ahead of the United Nation’s deadline.

He explained that the targeted goal
to decisively end gas flaring in the country is to be achieved under the policy
framework of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme approved by the
Federal Executive Council as far back as June, 2016. The minister stated that
the NGFCP was a key component of the National Gas Policy, which sought to end
gas flaring, create an enabling environment for investors, seek value addition
for gas and improve governance in the sector.

In
another development, the Minister said that the federal government is
working on a  legislation, through the Department of Petroleum Resources,
DPR, to compel petroleum products marketers to set up gas filling plants in all
their petrol stations across the country. He stated this in Abuja, during the
commissioning of Nigerian Army Welfare Limited by Guarantee, NAWLG/Gasland
Nigeria Limited, Liquefied Petroleum Gas plant in Mambila Barracks, Abuja, and
the launch of LPG Micro Distribution Centres in Nigeria Army barracks and
cantonments.

The
Minister stated that the directive was aimed at deepening the use of LPG across
the country, in addition to promoting the issue of clean energy as well as creating
employment opportunities. The minister explained that the regulation would
increase cooking gas selling points across the country by about 10,000, which
is about the same number of filling stations in Nigeria.

He
also disclosed that the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Petroleum
Resources, was already working with stakeholders across the LPG value chain,
and had set a target to build at least one gas filling plants across all
the 774 local government areas in the country within the next three years.

The Minister noted that the
ministry had already engaged LPG cylinder manufacturers, encouraging them
through special funding and other incentives to increase their production
capacity, especially as this is critical to LPG penetration.