Nigeria warns of penalties for lack of domestic gas

摘要

Nigeria's junior oil minister Odein Ajumogobia has warned of sanctions against multinational oil companies if they fail to meet their assigned quotas for domestic gas supply for 2009. This is to ensure the country can generate 6,000 MW a day of power by end-2009, Ajumogobia said. Nigeria currently generates between 2,500 and 2,800 MW a day, meeting barely a quarter of latent demand. The companies currently supply around 600 MMcfd, about half the 1.2 Bcfd of gas they are required to supply to the domestic market by year's end.rnAjumogobia told the chief executives of the companies in Abuja that the government expected them to "guarantee and prioritize" domestic gas supply over other projects. A technical committee has also been set up, comprising oil majors operating in the country and the state oil company the National Nigerian Petroleum Corp., to explore ways to fast track the delivery of gas for power generation. The government last October directed the oil companies to submit plans for the supply of gas to power plants and fertilizer companies, threatening sanctions against defaulters, including bans on the export of gas.