The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has called on industry operators, particularly large consumers of petroleum products, to move from the use of diesel to gas due to its comparative advantage.
Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer (CEO) of NMDPRA, spoke at a one-day stakeholders engagement on gas utilisation in Nigeria, held on Monday in Kano.
Ahmed, represented by Ogbugo Ukoha, executive director, distribution systems, storage, and retailing infrastructure, said there was an urgent need for large consumers of diesel to embrace the use of gas as it is Nigeria’s transition fuel.
“The PIA is poised to enable the growth of the industry. The twelve regulations recently gazetted unlock the golden opportunities and signpost the pathway to energy security,” he said.
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Ahmed noted that the federal government has implemented a number of initiatives and policy frameworks in this regard, including the natural gas expansion plan and the decade of gas expansion programme.
The NMDPRA boss expressed hope that the engagement would raise awareness and make a compelling case for industry operators to promote a compliance culture, which he said, would ensure safer and more sustainable facilities.
In his remarks, Shu’aibu Samuel, the NMDPRA northwest regional coordinator, said the event was designed to encourage industry operators to shift from the use of diesel to gas because “gas is not only cheaper but it is clean for the environment and has less carbon emission”.
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“One of the biggest challenges of industries is the supply of power and because of the challenge in the generation of electricity, companies have to rely on the use of generators to power their plants,” he said.
“Because of the deregulated environment, the cost of production has increased. So, bringing in gas will help them (industries) stabilise to reduce their cost of production so that we can compete with products in other countries.”
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