NPRA boss gives reasons for rise in price of cooking gas

Mr. Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NPRA, has ascribed the rising cost of cooking gas to poor investment into the gas sector over the years.

Ahmed made this assertion during his inauguration as CEO of NPRA and Mr. Gbenga Komolafe who was also inaugurated as the CEO of the Upstream Regulatory Commission.

Speaking to journalists after the inauguration, Komolafe disclosed that the Commission would seek to not just be a regulator for the upstream, but also a business enabler for the sector.

Komolafe also said the agency would work to ensure that Nigeria meets its OPEC oil production quota and benefits maximally from the current rise in price of oil.

Ahmed, on his part, disclosed that the NPRA would urgently work with stakeholders to tackle the challenge of rising price of cooking gas.

Ahmed lamented that poor investment into the gas sector over the years resulted to the hike in price of gas, adding that with the abundance of gas, Nigeria should not struggle with gas supply.

Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, confronted the CEOs on the growth of the oil and gas industry as a result of a drop in direct investment into the sector.

The Minister noted that the government expected exponential growth in the industry with the coming of the Petroleum Industry Act, (PIA).

He announced that with the inauguration of the heads of the new regulators, other regulators that existed before the PIA no longer exist.

He charged the CEOs on the need for smooth take off of the agencies, adding that “from the effective date of the PIA, those agencies were in place. But unfortunately there were no leadership so they could not take off. But now there is nothing to wait for.”

Sylva affirmed that he was expecting a lot of growth and development of the industry, stressing that the industry had been stagnated for a long time because the process of passing the PIA had been very arduous having taken over 20 years.