Kunle Aderinokun
The Ministry of Petroleum Resources will formally launch the National Gas Transportation Network Code tomorrow as part of the opening ceremony of the 3rd edition of Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja.
A senior official of the ministry, who disclosed this said the Nigerian Gas Transportation Network Code was critical to government’s objective in firming up the country’s domestic gas obligation as well as promoting export.
The network code, which has been designed to ensure that the wrong quality of Nigeria’s abundant gas did not go into the pipeline in addition to guaranteeing gas pipeline integrity, open access to pipeline and common understanding on metering.
The code is expected to also provide a uniform platform in terms of guidelines for agreements between buyers and sellers which will ensure transparency and eliminate existing bottlenecks.
A report of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) had stated that the country’s natural gas reserves, now on the increase, is projected to grow at a rate of about 1.0 per cent. According to report, the reserves volume of the operated deep-water acreages is about 21 per cent of the country’s total reserves of liquid hydrocarbons (7.746 BillionBbls/37.002BillionBbls). Despite all these, the acreages accounted for about 36.08 per cent of the total production in 2018.
The ministry official noted that a major policy thrust of the federal government is to unlock the potentials of gas as a resource and revenue earner for Nigeria, which “President Muhammadu Buhari in his capacity as the honorable minister of petroleum resources and Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva are very passionate about.”
The federal government sometime in 2011 recorded a significant milestone in the development of its natural gas for both domestic use and exports, by completing the first phase of the National Gas Transportation Network Code that will guide access to gas transmission network.
The code was completed and delivered to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) by Osprey Investments Group Limited, a British consultancy company and its technical partner, TPA Solutions.
