Oritsegbubemi Omatseyin
Lagos — The Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Ahmed Farouk, has hinted that operations of the Africa Energy Bank will commence soon.
Farouk made this known at the opening of the 18th edition of the Oil Trading and Logistics conference, OTL, in Lagos where he informed industry operators that plans are already being finalised to establish the Bank, which shall provide the funds necessary to fast track the growth of energy supply infrastructure for the continent.
The Africa Energy Bank is a major collaborative success that will assist the continent in its journey towards sustainable and just energy transition.
The 18-member African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation, APPO, recently expressed the hope that the lender can begin operating in early 2025, according to the Executive Vice President of global trade at the African Export-Import Bank, Haytham El Maayergi, a partner in the project.
Africa’s oil producers have encountered funding restrictions from traditional western backers, including multilateral institutions whose rules increasingly bar them from oil and gas investing. The World Bank stopped financing upstream oil and gas projects in 2019 while the African Development Bank, which has the US as its number two shareholder, does not put money into fossil fuel projects.
Speaking at the conference, Farouk said the NMDPRA would also champion the development and adoption of a uniform gas transportation code within West and North Africa, considering the progression of the West African Gas Pipeline, WAGP, to Morocco, for effective movement of natural gas within the regions.
Furthermore, the NMDPRA will explore mechanisms of facilitating the establishment of an association for Energy Regulators within West Africa, which may eventually integrate with the existing East African and South African regional regulators association, into a pan African Energy Regulators association for streamlined regulations and policy formulations.
Farouk said the gas sector holds a 16 billion cubic feet of gas daily (BSCF/D) Licensed processing capacity, 5 BSCF/D licensed transportation capacity and 1.5 BSCFD licensed distribution capacity. Each of the subsectors is expanding rapidly alongside the general transformation in the natural gas sector.
He said the NMDPRA would continue to employ all necessary measures to actualise the full aspirations of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). These include the assurance of quality and safety in the industry, strategic stakeholder engagements, and provision of regulatory support to key government initiatives such as the Decade of Gas and Pi-CNG programs.
He noted that strategic collaborations and alliances are indeed required for the industry to effectively surmount the emerging and conflicting challenges related to climate action, geopolitical tensions, market stability, and ever-growing energy demand.
Farouk went further to stress that the Midstream and Downstream sector requires strong collaborations between regulatory Agencies to facilitate ease of doing business, and between businesses to pool resources required for delivering complex projects.
According to him, it is necessary to expand regional collaborations to enhance cross border trade and for the industry to establish a robust mechanism for sharing best industry practices and capacity optimization.
He specifically acknowledged the efforts of the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria, MEMAN, in establishing such a centre in Lagos, assuring that the NMDPRA would work with MEMAN and other stakeholders to explore avenues to extend the services of the centre to other midstream and downstream players.
He said the Nigerian petroleum market is indeed undergoing major transformations and the country’s aspired target is to achieve a fully liberalized and matured market for all petroleum products and natural gas, where the market fundamentals lead to robust price discovery and attractive investment opportunities.
He said the Agency remains resolute and focused on leveraging the regulatory framework for creation of extensive value from crude oil and gas resources.
“Our organisational and regulatory mandates, as well as performance targets have been clearly set by the PIA and all other key programmes of Government and our mission is to ensure that we provide outstanding enablers that support all investments in our sector in the next few years,” he said.
He reiterated the commitment to strengthen collaborations on implementing safety measures across the midstream and downstream ecosystem to address the concerns of the public on safety of operations in the sector.
Regarding alliances, Farouk said the Authority would continue its quarterly Domain Specific Engagements, DSE, with key stakeholders, and on-demand engagements with other relevant parties to address ongoing and emerging concerns.
“We shall also continue with our regional and global engagements related to assurance of energy security, and successful global energy transition. The NMDPRA is also working with relevant stakeholders to implement new policies on safety and compliance, especially in the CNG space, which is still in its infancy stage,” he said.
This article was originally posted at sweetcrudereports.com
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