As Nigerians are presently groaning and frowning over the increasing cost of cooking gas, a prominent Activist in the Niger Delta region, Mr. Zik Gbemre has called for the immediate scrapping of Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) over non-performance to salvage the gas industry in Nigeria.
Gbemre on Monday, in a statement, accused the Nigerian Gas Company NGC of constituting or being the bottleneck hampering the growth in the gas industry.
He said, ”Whereas there is an abundance of gas deposit in Nigeria to generate well over 100,000 megawatts of electricity, the bureaucratic bottlenecks created by the Nigerian Gas Company has led to the present embarrassing situation of generating barely 4,000 megawatts for 200 million population of the country, and the 12.5 kilograms of gas selling for over #10,000”.
Gbemre revealed that it is the needless activities of the Nigerian Gas Company that has created this scarcity and made the price of gas hit record levels at present.
”The Nigerian Gas Company is nothing but a “Toll Gate” generating unnecessary gridlock. It must now be scrapped in order to ensure easy production and distribution of gas for power generation, domestic industries and cooking gas”.
”Nigeria is known unfortunately for its embarrassing propensity to duplicate efforts, create unnecessary agencies whose functions are either unclear or unnecessary, and manufacture roles and duties that end up constituting clogs in the wheels of the society”.
According to him ” The Nigerian Gas Company(NGC) is a needless Federal government company whose functions are detrimental to the smooth running of the Petroleum sector. It was established in 1988 as one of the eleven subsidiaries of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)”.
”The Non-Associated Gas (NAG) and Associated Gas (AG) are produced 100% by the international oil companies (IOCs) and Nigerian indigenous oil companies, including the NPDC and ND Western Ltd. The so-called Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) has no business in oil and gas production in Nigeria. So why don’t the international oil companies (IOCs) and the Nigerian indigenous companies that produce the Non-Associated Gas(NAG) and Associated Gas (AG) retain the mandate to sell the gas they produce without passing through the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC), which is nothing but a “tollgate” that constitutes a bottleneck and barrier to gas production and development in the country?
”The question is what exactly is the NGC needed for? Does the NGC produce gas? Does it add any value to gas? The answer to these questions is in the negative. The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) merely exists as a “tollgate” that add nothing to the value chain from gas drilling to processing to utilization. Instead, it stands in the way to appropriate what is produced and decides who gets what. The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) denies the international oil companies(IOCs) and indigenous oil companies who do the 100% in gas production the right to direct, manage and control the gas they produce”.
Gbemre further decried that the activities of the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) was responsible for the escalated price of cooking gas at present, and the inadequate supply of gas to power the power plants/stations that should generate electricity for the suffering population of Nigeria.
”It is not only that the NGC does nothing, but it also feeds fat on the nation’s resources through salaries, allowances and bonuses for its idle staff. To illustrate, the NGC spent 31.88 billion on personnel salaries, welfare and other expenses in 2020 alone, and you can bet with good reasons that the amount is much higher for 2021”.
”Also, the Petroleum Act must be re-amended. This is the only way the country can develop its gas potentials and make gas relevant to the economy. The IOCs and indigenous oil companies must now have the mandate to produce gas and sell directly to consumers as it is done with the production of crude oil and condensate”.