The Federal Government is planning to clear the N2.7tn owed to gas companies with royalties.
The Chief Executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe, disclosed this Thursday during a Zoom meeting organised by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, in commemoration of Ekpo’s second year in office.
Royalties are payments made to the Federal Government by oil and gas companies for the extraction of resources from the assets allocated to them.
These payments are typically a percentage of the revenue generated from selling the extracted oil and gas.
With the new arrangement, gas companies that are owed by the government for gas supplied to power plants would be sorted through the gas royalties they are supposed to pay to the government.
Komolafe, who was represented by an official of the commission, Dennis Anyanwu, said the NUPRC is playing a critical role alongside other stakeholders to address the legacy debt.
Since the majority of the companies owed pay royalties as gas producers, Komolafe said discussions are ongoing about how to extinguish the debt through royalty credits.
