The Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources, Sarki Auwalu, has revealed that government has identified 45 gas flaring sites in the country, which will be awarded to successful bidders for the commencement of the first phase of the National Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP).
The programme is intended to offer gas for sale by the federal government through a transparent and competitive bidding process, with a structure devised to provide project bankability for the flare gas buyers.
According to Auwalu, it would take 60 days for the government to evaluate proposals of the bidders based on stipulated criteria for the various gas flaring sites.
“The process is on. When the preferred bidders submit, it will take us 60 days to evaluate and this evaluation will take the process of making sure that all the bidders have submitted their bonds and given their Milestone Development Agreement.
“Milestone Development Agreement is key. If you bid and you win, you have to tell us when you are going to deliver the project and you have to bond it. So, we are trying to make sure that what we are doing is a reality,” he stated.
Auwalu continued: “There are 200 bidders that have been shortlisted. Over 800 bid and we looked at the capacity, the quantity, the quality of what they have. So, these 200 bidders are competing for about 45 flare sites for now and there are other flare sites, which are coming on board. And this is to show that investors are interested in Nigeria because of the potential.”
The director described the programme as the first of its kind in the world, adding that it is going to be beneficial to Nigerians and profitable to the investors in the project and at the various gas flaring sites.
“This gas resource as we mentioned, we have over 200 trillion standard cubic feet that is already discovered and we produce 800 billion daily and we utilise some percentage of it, export some percentage and we flare 11% of it.
“We are taking back that 11% that is flared. It is part of Nigeria’s commitment to the Climate Change Agreement that we signed in Paris in 2015.”
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