By Gift Olivia Samuel, The Sight News
The Oil and Gas Department of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources has come up with recommendations to address gaps in the availability of Oil and Gas Infrastructure in Nigeria, bearing in mind that a country is classified as underdeveloped, developing or developed based on its stock of Infrastructure.
The Ministry’s Oil and Gas Department recently held a 2-Day Stakeholder Workshop to review the Upstream, Mid-Stream and Downstream Critical Oil and Gas Infrastructure in Abuja.
The intention of the Workshop was to review the current state of infrastructure, identify gaps and propose strategies for closing the identified gaps for the emergence of an optimal infrastructure network that would sufficiently satisfy the energy needs of Nigerians.
After the workshop, the stakeholders among other recommendations, called for an urgent infrastructural re-birth programme for the oil and gas sector; as well as the need for new negotiations to be done in such a way that domestic refining obligations are adequately captured for new entrants.
Also, the need to deepen support for the on-streaming of Dangote refinery was underscored, as that would help to create a healthy competition in the development of local refineries.
They further called for the consideration of the public private partnership as another funding model for the development and upgrading of infrastructure deficits in the oil and gas sector.
According to the Head, Press Unit, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Olujimi Oyetomi, the recommendations called for the development of the downstream sub-sector, view it strictly from business-driven perspective and the culture of Management of change process must be built into every infrastructure project especially in the oil and gas henceforth.
On the second day, it was recommended that Associate gas framework agreement be enforced to ensure compliance Funding for LPG penetration be from domestic investors.
Also, the communique called for the need to ensure that Tariff waivers be given to potential investors in the LPG sector.
Senior representatives from the Ministry of Petroleum Resources (MPR), the Ministry of Budget and National Planning (MBNP), the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) were all in attendance at the 2-Day Workshop.
