New industrial gas price regime coming - Diezani

Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, has said that the ministry is working with relevant agencies in the energy sector to ensure that the pricing for gas is made as competitive as possible in the next three to four months.

The Gas Pricing Framework, when unveiled, will stipulate a price regime for gas to the power sector, fertiliser and steel, petrochemical as well as for domestic use, among others.

The minister made this known, yesterday, at the maiden Bayelsa State Investment and Economic Forum, in Yenagoa.

She said: “We are working with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), power ministry, Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, in terms of trying to streamline what we are doing to bring gas to power in the very short and medium term. Central to all this will be the right pricing framework which will hopefully be firmly in place within the next four months or so.”

“We are working with a number of the multinationals predominantly Shell who have in its acreage the greatest volumes of our gas reserves to ensure that we are able to mop up the various fields where we do have unutilised volumes of gas reserves and make them available to the various operators of the IPPs that have come into play over the last 18 to 24 months.”

Responding to questions from potential investors at the forum on the state of security of investments in the country, Minister of Industry Trade and Investment, Dr. Olusegun Aganga, said there were adequate laws to protect foreign investments, urging them to identify with Nigeria Investment Promotion Council (NIPC).

Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State said the establishment of the Bayelsa Investment Promotion Agency (BIPA), and the liaison offices in London and South Africa, were designed to protect and facilitate foreign investment in the state.