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As part of this campaign, he added, the company “Our target is to displace diesel for the indus-
has already begun discussions with the African trial sector,” he remarked.
Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) and pri- In Ghana, he continued, Tetracore has
vate-equity investors in the hope of raising funds established a gas distribution system in the
via debt. Tema industrial zone and has signed “a couple”
“We will explore all avenues [for financing],” of off-take contracts since setting up shop in
he told The Africa Report. “The landscape is December 2021. The company views Tema as
very ripe now.” “a test case” and hopes to take advantage of the
He also outlined several aspects of Tetracore’s government’s industrial development policy by
business development strategy, saying that the expanding into other parts of the country, he
company wanted to build up its gas processing said. Its next target will be the Takoradi indus-
capacity in Nigeria, expand its operations in trial zone, he stated.
Ghana and acquire carbon storage and capture He also said that Tetracore intended to take
capabilities. much the same approach to the Ghanaian mar-
With respect to domestic gas processing, ket as it had done to the Nigerian market. That
Williams said, Tetracore is working to close a is, he told The Africa Report, rather than build-
deal within the next three to six months. He did ing processing plants first, the company will set
not divulge any details but indicated that the up distribution centres first in order to establish
company saw Nigeria as a growth market for demand for gas and then focus on “backward
gas, especially if used as a substitute for diesel integration” into processing facilities.
fuel. The country possesses large reserves of gas, In the long term, he added, Tetracore wants
and the domestic pricing regime offers more to add carbon capture and storage (CCS) to its
stability than world market prices for diesel, he list of offerings. This is likely to take three to five
argued. years, he stated. ™

PERFORMANCE
CBN says rising oil prices are not helping

Nigeria due to low revenues, fuel subsidies

NIGERIA THE Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has
released a report confirming that the rise in
world crude oil prices is not benefiting the gov-
ernment’s finances, as spending on domestic
gasoline subsidies is rising more quickly than
oil revenues.
In the report, the bank notes that Nigeria
deposited NGN208.2bn ($496mn) worth of
crude oil and natural gas revenues into the Fed-
eration Account in February, down by 36.9% on
the previous month’s figure of NGN329.99bn.
It further states that the country earned no
revenues from oil and gas exports in February,
unchanged from January, while domestic oil and
gas sales generated NGN41.92bn in February,
down by 43.7% on the previous month’s figure
of NGN74.4bn. Nigeria subsidises domestic gasoline prices below market levels (Photo: NNPC)
Additionally, CBN reports that the Nigerian
government’s deficit spending amounted to February, up from NGN143.72bn ($346.31mn)
NGN580bn in February, up by 6.5% on the Jan- in January.
uary figure of about NGN544.6bn. It attributes It is worth noting that the CBN report
the increase to the sharp month-on-month drop only covers the month of February – that is, a
in oil and gas revenues and increased spending period that mostly preceded Russia’s invasion of
on the gasoline subsidy. Ukraine. World oil prices were generally bull-
This is in line with data released by Nigerian ish between February 1 and February 23 before
National Petroleum Co. Ltd (NNPC Ltd), which the outbreak of war, owing to concerns about
said in late June that the government had spent the possibility of armed conflict, but to a lesser
NGN253bn ($609.64) on the gasoline subsidy in degree than they were after February 24.

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