The Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has rated 139 applicants as “deemed successful and awarded the Qualified Applicant status”, for the Request For Qualification (RFQ) Phase of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme (NGFCP) 2022
This is less than 50% of the Three Hundred (300) companies who registered their interest to revalidate their prequalification status and submit Statement of Qualification (SOQ) as existing bidders and new participants, respectively.
The Commission says that in consideration of Section 105 (2) of the PIA and similar provisions enabling the Commission in that respect, it “hereby publishes the list of Qualified Applicants who will proceed to the Request for Proposal (RFP) phase of the NGFCP 2022.”
The 139 “Qualified Applicants” will now follow through with the subsequent stages of the Programme towards becoming a Permit Holder/Flare Gas Buyer in line with the applicable statutes.
47 gas flare sites are on offer with a total potential output of about 250Milion standard cubic feet of gas per day guaranteed for five years. 14 of these sites can deliver between 0.5 to 2Million standard cubic feet per day (MMscf/d); 19 sites can do 2.1 to 5MMscf/d; nine (9) can produce between 5.1 and 10MMscf/d and five flare sites can produce over 10MMscf/d.
25 (or 53%) of the flare sites are located on land; eight (8) in swamp; 13 in shallow water and one in deepwater.
The NGFCP 2022 seeks small/mid-scale modular technologies and its unique features includes ease of deployment, scalability, mobility, and off-theshelf availability including: • Mini/mid-scale LNG, • Modular LPG facility, • modular methanol/ammonia plant, • Gas-to-liquids facility, • Virtual pipeline solutions. The proposed solution(s) must cater for the full stream of the flare gas composition
In the next phase of the process, which is Request for Proposal (RFP) phase gas composition will be a part of the flare dataset which will be made available in the data room. Typical flare gas composition shows methane content of 70-90% which makes the sites amenable to mini-LNG deployments NUPRC officials assure. Many of the flare sites are not necessarily connected to pipeline infrastructure, but basic (financial and technical) requirements are provided in the Request for Qualification (RFQ) and detailed information will be enumerated in the RFP when issued, regulators have assured.
The NUPRC says there are no base formula for license fees rather there are fixed fees which are categorized based on range of volumes.
Pricing is always a key issue in gas offtake. Questions have been raised about whether any additional flare gas produced by the field above the licensed quantity may be priced at Henry Hub. To this, the NUPRC has responded: “If available, additional flare gas offtake by Flare Gas Buyer (FGB) over and above the contracted flare volume will be priced at the bid price offered by the FGB as contained in the Gas Sales Agreement (GSA)”.
The NUPRC promises it would “implement a streamlined regulatory licensing and permitting processes to facilitate project development”. It promised that Flare is made available under the NGFCP to a Flare Gas Buyer on an “As is Where is” basis. “The Commission shall exercise best endeavor to ensure that the forecasted quantity is made available by the producers”.
Any carbon credit accruable, the NUPRC explains, will be managed in line with the established protocol on carbon credit.
All Qualified Applicants shall receive further communications via their respective contact addresses and the NGFCP portal (ngfcp.nuprc.gov.ng) accordingly.
