By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government is set to commission the over 200 million standard cubic feet per day (MMSCF/Day) wholly-owned-and-constructed Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) Integrated Gas Handling Facility (IGHF) and a Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) storage and dispensing plant on Tuesday, December 22.
The opening of the gas dispensing plant located at Ologbo, Edo State, will hold virtually and will feature Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and the Alternate Chairman of the Board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Timipre Sylva, alongside Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari.
The NPDC is an upstream subsidiary of the NNPC and the commissioning is in line with the federal government’s gas expansion programme.
Mr Sylva, on Thursday, December 3, 2020, at the 7th virtual Joint International Energy Forum and International Gas Union (IEF-IGU) ministerial gas forum in Malaysia, had declared that January 1, 2021, to December 31, 2030, as The Decade of Gas Development for Nigeria.
The Minister said Nigeria had made laudable achievements and successes in the gas space within the year under review and undeniably making 2020 The Year of Gas count. He noted that Nigeria still had more work to do post-2020.
According to him, the development of Nigeria’s vast gas resources and strengthening of the gas value chain was the federal government’s national priority as encapsulated in the National Gas Policy of 2017.
He said: “In that regard, we are pursuing programmes to grow our gas economies through the development of industrial and transport gas markets, in juxtaposition with gas-to-power initiatives.
“We believe gas will become the dominant fuel for generating power not only in Nigeria but in Africa as well. We have commenced the implementation of carefully conceived initiatives to foster productivity and attract investments along the gas value chain,” he said.
For the event tomorrow, President Mohammadu Buhari, who doubles as the Minister of Petroleum Resources, has been invited as a special guest of honour at the commissioning.
