Investment Policy will be ready to Nigerians in few months — NMDPRA ED

By Olaseinde Gbenga

The Executive Director, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Oluwole Adama has disclosed that the future of the country’s Oil and Gas Sector is very bright.

He made this known during the panel discussion at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy week conference and exhibition in Abuja on Wednesday with the theme: Accelerating Investment, Enabling Industry Growth, Meeting Energy Demand.

According to him, “the Petroleum Industry Act ( PIA ) initiated by the government in regarding Gas is to create competition and revitalisation in the Oil and Gas industry but for Gas particularly, there have been so many government schemes, from Gas master plan, to decade of Gas to create infrastructure.”

He noted that the section 42 of the PIA Act set up MidStream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure fund (MDGIF), which is slow in starting but “because of the drive by the President for auto, a council was appointed in January, which we hit the ground running by crafting policy to ensure we have a robust processes.”

He said, “the council approved investment policy process in the month of March which will be accessible on our agency’s platform for all Nigerians. We have received several applications, and we are currently reviewing 50.

“In line with the PIA Act, we have built a budget for the sector, and we want to allocate this year for different projects, from the Gas pipelines, to Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG), Compressed Natural Gas(CNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas( LPG), which the council and the National assembly has approved.”

According to him, “We are in the process of reviewing about 40 projects in line with the policy.”

“Also, the fund which we keep emphasising is an equity fund not government grant. We want to ensure that every money invested is safe and increases because it is equity.”