A bill that seeks to establish Nigerian gas processing and marketing regulatory board on Wednesday scaled through second reading on the floor of the House of Representatives.
The bill seeks to empower the Board to monitor operational regulations and management of strategic gas pipelines and supply networks; formulate and implement all policies aimed at ensuring safety and security of gas processing, transportation and distribution, and formulate policies that would enhance the distribution and utilisation of gas for domestic and industrial purposes.
It further seeks to regulate the prices charged for downstream gas, distribution, supply and sale of gas to foreign importers; granting domestic downstream licences for construction and operation of processing plants for gas liquefaction; undertake supply of natural gas and owning and running natural gas processing and retail facilities.
According to the proponent of the bill, Agbedi Frederick, the Board when established, will ensure gainful harvest of enormous gas resources, as gas is the new world economic direction in the petroleum/energy industry.
Frederick said the creation of the regulatory agency that would be responsible for the supervision and control of the downstream activities of gas marketing and utilisation, would provide Nigeria with maximum benefits from the evolving gas sub-sector of the Nigerian economy.
“Effective gas development is a string catalysts for economic growth, which promises a multiplier effect on the Nigerian economy. As Nigeria is entering into the gas era, the need for a clear legal framework to guide gas exploration, exploitation and utilisation becomes abundantly prominent and that is the basis for the bill under consideration.
“Before this time, gas had been considered a wasteful by-product in petroleum exploration and exploitation that had to be flares. Interestingly, recently gas has come to be recognised as a valuable product that can be exploited alone or together with crude oil.
“Even with the recognition and the anticipated earnings from gas, enough consideration has not been given in all existing petroleum industry legislation. Even in the petroleum industry bill that has been proposed to the House in which one of the objectives is to create efficient and effective governing institutions with clear and separate roles for the petroleum industry, no institution was created for the management and control of the exploitation and utilisation of gas resources. Rather, it was sparingly included in the functions of the Nigerian Petroleum Regulatory Commission.
“We are all aware of the increasing utilisation of gas in motor engines, generation of power, industries and domestically. Our first are rapidly depleting, which means that we will rely more on gas for cooking and other domestic heating activities, this calls for safety and maintenance of safety standards,” Frederick observed.
On his part, Diri Douye, who decried the level of environmental degradation of the oil producing communities across the Niger Delta, harped on the need to provide legal framework that would regulate gas exploration in the country.
“There’s gas all over the Niger Delta and Lagos, and if we leave it like crude oil over the years we will be looking at a lot of income, and we are also going to lose the domestication of usage of gas,” Douye said.
He noted that the agency when established would help in promoting gas utilisation by Nigerian households in other climes.
In his contribution, Henry Archibong expressed optimism that gas resources had huge potential of crude oil, just as he stressed the need for the amendment of the existing Act on associated gas with the view to address the challenges of gas flaring, which contributed to loss of huge foreign exchange.
While expressing support for the bill, Sergius Ogun assured that the agency would help to curb wastage of resources endowed in gas production, stressing that there was so much demand for utilisation of gas across the world, especially for power generation.
In his contribution, Leo Ogor, minority leader, who expressed regrets over Nigeria’s failure to add value to its crude oil exported for over 60 years, assured that the legal framework would address so many challenges in the gas industry.
While ruling, Speaker Yakubu Dogara referred the bill to the House Committee on Gas Resources for further legislative action.
