Page 16 - AfrOil Week 43

AfrOil PERFORMANCE AfrOil

Jerónimo also noted that Angola had made sig- a platform for sending gas from the Nemba and
nificant progress with respect to monetising its Sanha fields to Angola LNG.”
natural gas resources. He highlighted the forma- Angola’s oil production was already in a long-
tion of the “New Gas Consortium, which pro- term decline prior to the advent of the corona-
vides for the development of gas fields in Blocks virus pandemic. Output levels dropped even
1, 2 and 3 for the supply of Angola LNG and for further after several IOCs halted development
other domestic projects and the Sanha Lean Gas operations in the spring in response to the drop
Connection from Cabinda, which aims to build in global energy demand. ™

POLICY
Nigeria’s PIB would fold

PPPRA, PEF into new agency

NIGERIA THE Nigerian government’s proposed oil and and downstream petroleum operation in an
gas law, known as the Petroleum Industry Bill environmentally acceptable and suitable man-
(PIB), looks set to fold two of the existing agen- ner,” according to the text of the PIB, as cited by
cies that regulate the downstream sector into a Nigerian News Agency (NAN). “Also, it will pro-
new agency. mote a competitive market for the midstream
The West African state’s downstream sector and downstream petroleum operations and pro-
is currently under the supervision of the Petro- mote the supply and distribution of natural gas
leum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency and petroleum products in the midstream and
(PPPRA) and the Petroleum Equalisation Fund downstream,” it said.
(PEF). Additionally, the Department of Petro- One of NMDPRA’s main tasks will be to
leum Resources (DPR) has the authority to reg- ensure domestic supplies of natural gas, NAN
ulate activity in the upstream, midstream and reported. To this end, the PIB states, the new
downstream sectors of the oil and gas industry. agency will “be setting cost benchmarks for
Under the PIB, though, a new agency known midstream and downstream petroleum oper-
as the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream ations, [will] provide pricing tariffs framework
Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) for natural gas and fair market value of the appli-
will monitor commercial, operational and tech- cable petroleum products ... [and will advise] the
nical operations in the downstream sector and government, its agencies and other stakeholders
the midstream sector. “The Authority shall be on the commercial market relating to tariff and
responsible for the technical and commercial pricing frameworks.”
regulation of the midstream and the down- Additionally, the bill says, NMDPRA will
stream petroleum operations in the petroleum “[grant], issue, modify, extend, renew, review,
industry,” the bill states. cancel, reissue or terminate licences, permits
The legislation “will also promote health safe, and authorisation for midstream and down-
efficient and effective conduct of midstream stream petroleum operations.”

NMDPRA will be responsible for ensuring domestic gas supplies (Photo: NairaMetrics)

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 43 28•October•2020