The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) has advocated that market forces should be allowed to determine gas prices to guarantee the security of supply and demand of the commodity.
Mr Sarki Auwalu, the Chief Executive Officer, DPR, disclosed this while presenting keynote address at the pre-summit conference on “Decade of gas’, in Abuja, on Monday.
Auwalu said that the right and market-based pricing of gas was critical, as it would assure producers of returns on their investments.
He also outlined five critical levers for gas development, especially as Nigeria moves to leverage its abundant gas resources for national growth, diversification of the economy and to use gas as the fuel for economic transformation.
According to him, the levers include availability, accessibility, affordability, and acceptability, as well as deliverability.
He noted that these were critical to utilising Nigeria’s proven gas reserves of 203 trillion cubic feet, TCF, for national development.
“Whereas references have been made to the other elements in this discussion, right pricing of gas is requiring particular attention to ensure security of gas supply and security of credible gas demand.
“This is because upstream gas producers must be assured that they will receive fair and equitable returns for their investments whereas, the price must be such that the end-users are able to pay for gas offtake in a reliable and consistent manner.
“Accordingly, the most robust and sustainable pricing mechanism is that which ‘let the market speak’ in a way that all costs are reflective of prevailing market conditions and for which the economic dynamics of demand and supply are allowed to interplay in an open, transparent, and free market environment.
“Thus, our drive as a nation should be early attainment to the ‘willing buyer; willing seller’ market status.
“Any transitional pricing arrangements, today, must be structured to quickly give way for market-led pricing regime and conditions,” he said. (NAN)
