The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, is set to begin the monitoring and regulation of gas terminals, a major criterion in determining the price of Liquefied Natural Gas, also known as cooking gas.
It said natural gas or its derivatives will no longer be evacuated from a terminal for export or supply to bulk customers in Nigeria without a valid wholesale gas supply licence.
This was contained in the proposed Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Operations Regulations, 2024 obtained by our correspondent on Sunday.
The proposed regulations, which have received stakeholders’ assent, will enable the authority to reduce the complexities of navigating and implementing their numerous regulations in the petroleum industry.
At a stakeholders meeting last month, the authority said the operations regulations would consolidate 12 of the authority’s earlier gazetted or published regulations.
The Director of Distribution System Storage and Retailing Infrastructure, Ogbugo Ukoha, said it would also provide the prescribed fees and penalties for midstream and downstream petroleum activities.
Recall that the price of cooking gas has skyrocketed from N700/kg in June 2023, around when President Bola Tinubu assumed office, to N1,500/kg in October 2024.
