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The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources says more than

$20 billion is needed to Bridge the Gas Infrastructure Deficit.

Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources

The Minister of State for Petro- According to the minister, and achieving the targeted gas
leum Resources, Chief Timipre MDGIF was set up under the initiatives intended to improve
Sylva, has stated that Nigeria will Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the gas infrastructure deficit in
need $200 billion to bridge the is partnering with the Nigerian the country.
gas infrastructure deficit in the Midstream and Downstream The Minister mentioned that ur-
next 10 years, with $20bn spen- Petroleum Regulatory Authority gent measures need to be taken
ding yearly. (NMDPRA) and it is expected to to mitigate the gas infrastructure
He disclosed this information at benefit from operational and deficit, and in doing so, bring
the inauguration of a nine-mem- organizational processes as well gas infrastructure closer to ‘our
ber governing council commit- as internal reporting. people to enable them to benefit
tee of the midstream and down- He further stated that the from government policy in this
stream gas infrastructure fund council would be responsible for regard’.
(MDGIF). The Minister of State making investment decisions for The Minister of Petroleum will
Petroleum Resources maintai- the fund. A few months ago, Pre- act as the council chairman
ned that the gas infrastructure sident Muhammadu Buhari had while the executive director of
deficit had resulted in poor gas declared that the next decade MDGIF will serve as chief execu-
production, low domestic gas should be focused on gas deve- tive officer. Other members inc-
utilization and gas flaring in the lopment in Nigeria. lude Victor Omata, representing
country. Sylva added that the Federal Go- federal ministry of finance,
He requested that the newly set vernment had been instru- Scholastica Nnaji, representing
up committee should work hard mental in putting in place the Central Bank of Nigeria
to mobilize funds needed for the several policy initiatives targeted (CBN) and Farouk Ahmed, chief
provision of gas infrastructure at developing the huge gas executive officer NMDPRA.
for the industry. potential

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