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The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund (NMDGIF) has so far accumulated to about $400 million as concerns around the implementation of the Decade of Gas (DoG) policy continues to swell, THISDAY learnt yesterday.
This was just as a Final Investment Decision (FID) on an upstream gas project was expected to take place this quarter to give an impetus to the realisation of the decade-long programme.
The DoG declared by the immediate-past President Muhammadu Buhari in March 2021, seeks to power Nigeria’s economy and industrialise the country by using the country’s abundant gas resources as an enabler by the end of 2030.
Providing updates on the policy during the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) Luncheon at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, USA, Coordinator of the Decade of Gas Secretariat, Mr. Ed Ubong, revealed that the NMDGIF, which is one of the vehicles for the actualisation of the DoG had accumulated about $300 million to $400 million.
At the session which centred on the theme: “Harnessing Nigeria’s Gas Potential for Domestic Utilisation and Global Market,” Ubong said about N122 billion had been disbursed from the NMDGIF fund to fund some critical infrastructure projects in partnership with project promoters
“Remember that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) also established the Midstream and Downstream Gas Infrastructure Fund. At the last count, when we sort of looked at it, there was maybe about $300 or $400 million sitting in that fund.
“That is an equity fund where government is saying, if you want to build infrastructure, we may not have money to fully fund it. But we are willing to put some seed equity into it to provide for you investor comfort to move ahead. As at last year, that fund had disbursed about N122 billion,” he disclosed.
He expressed confidence that another batch of disbursements would be carried out before the middle of the year to fund more projects.
According to him, these are projects that play in the midstream and downstream to help close the infrastructure gap such as pipelines, Compressed Natural Gas (CNG), mini Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) among others.
Ubong, however, admitted that Nigeria’s gas sector had been plagued by legacy issues, adding that the most important demand customer for the sector is power, with about 70 per cent, apart from the export market.
He argued that the power sector has struggled on the gas side because the power plants owed gas producers significant amounts of money.
As part of the solution, Ubong noted that in spite of the financial challenges existing in the federal budget, President Bola Tinubu in his magnanimity, had on April 4, 2024 approved the settlement of all reconciled gas to power areas
He said the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas) was working to start the deductions and draw on that base.
He pointed out that investors needed that kind of confidence that endures that the gas they put into the power plants will be paid for.
“If we don’t do it, we can sit here and hold OTC as many times as possible. Investors will be looking for where they can put gas and get paid.
“So that’s something that needs to happen and it’s happening. And that’s why I said the president is leading the way in enabling gas”, he said.
On the DoG programme, Ubong said progress had been recorded regardless of the perception that it had stagnated, adding that a lot had changed in the gas landscape between 2020 to 2025.
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