Senate Committee Cautions On Gas Equipment Installation

The Senate Committee on Gas last Thursday in Abuja warned International Oil Companies (IOCs) to desist from delaying government’s efforts at installing a real time gas monitoring equipment in the country.

The Tide  reports that the equipment will give an accurate figure of the quantity of gas produced and utilised in the country.

The Chairman of the Committee, Senator  Nkechi Nwoagu (PDP-Abia),  gave the warning at a meeting between the Committee and the IOCs.

Nwoagu said the committee would not tolerate any further excuses that would delay the installation of the equipment in gas production sites.

“We are determined to see that gas is included as revenue source for the country. We have this commodity in abundance yet it has not impacted much on Nigerians in terms of standard of living.’’

She also asked the IOCs to develop infrastructure that would aid domestic consumption of gas rather than the companies focusing on export.

The lawmaker expressed worry that in spite of the abundance of gas in the country, Nigerians still use firewood and kerosene for cooking.

The meeting was prompted by accusations levelled against the IOCs by Riverman Technologies limited, the contractor handling the project.

The representative of the company, Mr Ambrose Akpotair,  told the Committee at a previous meeting that the IOCs refused them access to the sites where evaluations were to be carried out, saying  this has become a major bottleneck to the completion of the job. The IOCs do not give us permission to carry out evaluation at their sites.

“Where evaluations are done and engineering report sent to them, they do not get back to us. And that is a major setback for us.’’

According to him, the contract was awarded in 2009 with a completion period of nine months but almost four years down the line, only 8.3 per cent of the job has been completed, pointing out that out of 116 locations, only 10 sites have been installed with the monitoring gadget. ’’

Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, (SPDC), one of the affected IOCs, agreed to increase collaboration with the contractor to ensure that the equipment were installed at the locations.

Mr Isaac Ukpebor, Head, Real Time Operations of Shell, had told the committee that the reason none of the locations was equipped was because of a propriety agreement, while Mr Segun Aluko of Chevron told the Committee that his organisation was finalising plans to increase the supply of gas for domestic use.

The Tide  reports that Shell and Mobil equally agreed to increase their supply of gas for domestic use.