The Federal Government has received statements of qualification from a total of 240 firms that want to commercialise gas flaring in Nigeria.
It was gathered on Tuesday that the interested parties submitted their statements of qualification in response to the request for qualification package of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme.
This was contained in an email on updates about the NGFCP, which was sent to our correspondent by the Chairman, Ministerial Steering Committee, NGFCP and Group Executive Director, NNPC/Senior Technical Adviser, Refineries, Gas, Power and Downstream Infrastructure to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Rabiu Suleiman.
“NGFCP is very pleased to advise that 240 SOQs (Statements of Qualification) were received. As you are aware, a Proposal Evaluation Committee and an Independent Observer Group have been appointed and inaugurated on the 11th of April, 2019 by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu,” Suleiman said.
He added, “The PEC shall evaluate the SOQs submitted by the applicants to determine qualified applicant status in compliance with the design criteria of the request for qualification and also to evaluate the proposals that would be submitted by qualified applicant to determine those bidders that achieve preferred bidder and reserved bidders status.”
Suleiman said the PEC and IOG would soon begin their work in evaluating the SOQs starting from June 2019, adding that it was expected that the results would become known at the end of the exercise within four weeks.
“The general public and all applicants will be advised thereafter on the names of the candidates adjudged successful who shall be invited to submit their proposal for flare gas utilisation through the request for proposals phase of the NGFCP,” he stated.
The NGFCP is a critical aspect of the Federal Government’s gas revolution initiative, which intends to drastically reduce gas flaring by harnessing otherwise flared gases to stimulate economic growth, drive investments and provide jobs in the Niger Delta through the utilisation of innovative technologies.
The policy on gas flaring is also encapsulated in the National Gas Policy approved by the Federal Executive Council in June 2017.
In the National Gas Policy, the Federal Government made it clear that it would take measures to ensure that flare capture and utilisation projects were developed and would work collaboratively with industry, development partners, providers of flare-capture technologies andthird party investors.
The government also stated that it would open an industry consultation mechanism, as an important measure in ensuring that flaring targets were feasible and regulations were realistic.
In the gas policy, the government targets to maximise the utilisation of associated gas to be treated for supply to power generation or industry.
The government also stated that the policy had increased gas flaring penalty to a level sufficient to de-incentivise the practice of gas flaring while introducing other measures to encourage efficient gas utilisation.
