Mr Dada Thomas, Managing Director, Frontier Energy Limited, has urged the Federal Government to expedite action on the implementation of the nation’s gas master plan to fast track development in the sector.
Thomas made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Wednesday against the back drop of government’s effort in reviving the power sector to boost generation.
He said there was need to execute the gas master plan as Nigeria had the capacity to utilise five billion Standard Cubic Feet (SCF) daily gas productions.
He said gas was the key resource that could drive capacity building in terms of the economy, if Nigeria could articulate, be in position and seriously go on to implement the master plan and take it beyond the original ideas.
“If government makes gas available all over Nigeria, you can see that with energy available, it is possible to have things like power generation easily.
“If we have power generation in a way that from generation to distribution, we are able to get it right in Nigeria, the country will change rapidly,” he said.
Thomas said that gas was related to the ability to feed the nation as the main source of the production of urea, the main component of fertiliser.
“The fertiliser you apply in order to have good yield in agriculture comes from gas; unfortunately the only fertiliser company we have is National Fertiliser Company of Nigeria (NAFCON) built about 30 years ago, which has been privatised.
“How come a country that has so much resource has only one fertiliser plant. Today, some quantity of fertilisers out of the total need is still being imported into the country.
“Most of the power plants run on gas. Industries run on gas. We need to implement the gas master plan very well; implement the process whereby we match pricing, match the commercial aspect of it to give gas to Nigerians.
“The energy source today is gas.
“If we cannot articulate clearly the commercial framework, the technical framework to be able to take issues and close the entire value chain, to give gas to Nigerians at a price you can call equitable, it means clearly that we cannot move forward to develop our country.’’
He also emphasised that for Nigeria to develop, it needed to be self-sufficient in energy production.
He said that government should discourage gas flaring so that it could be more productive and provide resources for Nigeria’s use.
Thomas said that gas required matching the production to utilisation, meaning there should be a defined price regime, to encourage the owners of gas to produce, transport and use it. (NAN)
YO/IKU/IA