The Federal Government has paid $120 million out of $1.3 billion owed to gas firms for the supply of gas for the running of power plants in Nigeria.
This was disclosed in Abuja, on Thursday, during the 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2024), by the Director, Decade of Gas Secretariat Ed Ubong.
He said the payment was to offset part of the debts owed to gas firms.
Ubong spoke at a session tagged: ‘From Blueprint to Reality: Navigating Nigeria’s Gas Decade and Balanced Narrative on Energy Transition’.
The session dwelt on gas policy, regulation, and sustainable solutions in Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Autogas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), and Gas–to–P–Power.
According to Ubong, “As of last year, that (gas debts) was about $1.3 billion, depending on how you add up the numbers. But I am pleased that between October and the end of January, the government has paid over $120 million to offset some of that money.
“More importantly, the government is also now working on a framework that can mitigate most of that failure. That’s a piece of work that is ongoing and we hope that it will be approved and then the industry can move away from that legacy issue.
“We must build capacity for that. Capacity for the engineers, and technicians that will work in this new gas sector that we are looking at for the next eight months. And as the secretary, we are committed to that”, Ubong added.
