-By Zik Gbemre
NIGERIAN GAS COMPANY (NGC) OVERDUE FOR SCRAPPING
The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) constitutes a bottleneck that must be quickly scrapped to salvage the gas industry in Nigeria, and reduce the unreasonable high cost of running government in the country
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 (NGC) has led to the present embarrassing situation of generating barely 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts for over 234,257,106 million population of the country (and this makes Nigeria the 6th most populated country in the world), and the 12.5 kilograms of gas selling for over 12,000 naira.
It is the needless activities of the Nigerian Gas Company that has created this scarcity and made the price of gas hits 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, cooking gas and export.
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.
All these are done just to create offices for the "boys" which the system have no need for. It is just such needless duplication of duties that has brought the country to its knees, and why the recurrent expenditure in the national budget is over 80%.
There are thousands of Nigerians employed in duplicated agencies and parastatals, feeding fat from the nation's dwindling resources who have neither defined roles nor any reason whatsoever to be in those offices. Paradoxically, their activities even hinder, rather than enhance the smooth running of the society and invest more in research agencies for increase in productivity.
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 ND Western Ltd of OML 34 in Delta State.
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, including ND Western Ltd 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 "toll gate" that constitutes a bottleneck and barrier to gas production and development in the country?
The question is what exactly is the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) needed for? Does NGC produce gas? No. Does NGC add any value to gas production? No. The answer is known.
The Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) merely exists as a "toll gate" that adds nothing to the value chain from gas drilling & production 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, including ND Western Ltd of OML 34 in Delta State that do the 100% in gas production the right to direct, manage and control the gas they produce.
It is the activities of the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) that is 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, it also feeds fat on the nation's resources through salaries, allowances and bonuses for its idle staff. To illustrate this, the NGC spent 31.88 billions on personnel salaries, welfare and other expenses in 2020 alone, and you can bet with good reasons that the amount is much higher for 2021,2022 & 2023.
It is now apparent from the foregoing that the present crises in the oil & gas industry is self-inflicted. To salvage the situation, an imminent restructuring of the petroleum sector is required. This should involve the scrapping of the NGC, and its staff taken to other ministries/departments. The NGC as it presently exists is a complete waste of resources with no economic relevance to the oil and gas sector. It contributes nothing to the industry or the Nigerian economy. It is rather inflicting injury on the economy.
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.
We are presently denied the benefits of what God has blessed us with, through the activities of the irrelevant Nigerian Gas Company, doing nothing other than sit and read metres, lay pipes and receive money.
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, gas and condensate in the western countries.
Zik Gbemre
November 1, 2024
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