The Director of Petroleum Resources, Engr. Sarki Auwalu, has inaugurated three teams to operationalise the full implementation of the Nigeria Gas Transportation Network Code (NGTNC) recently launched by the Minister of State Petroleum Resources,with Timipre Sylva, with a six-month mandate to go live.
The Director in his address at the virtual inauguration ceremony stated that the major objective of the industry wide and highly proficient teams was to provide the needed impetus for the full operationalisation of the network code.
He reiterated that basic regulatory instruments for the operationalisation of the network code like licence regime and administrative system will be expedited by DPR before the go-live ministerial mandate and also the operational readiness of the gas transmission system as well as migration of extant agreements into the network code by the Nigerian Gas Company (NGC) will be concluded to align with the go-live date.
Engr. Sarki further stated that the constitution of the teams of experts was a product of extensive consultation and he was confident that they will perform beyond expectation to help in the accelerated development and maturation of the Nigerian domestic gas sector.
He thanked the leadership and members of the NNPC, GACN, NGA, OPTS and DPR gas team for their commitment towards the successful operationalisation of the network code.
The inaugurated teams with their Terms of Reference (TOR) Team 1: NC Operationalisation Technical Working Team (NCO-TWT), has seven members.
Their six terms of reference include the following:
- Establish System readiness for full operationalisation of NGTNC
- Articulate the technical modalities for the successful migration of existing Gas Transport Agreements (GTAs) to network code
- Develop a framework for providing effective stakeholder support for all technical and regulatory issues for effective operationalisation of network code
- Develop a framework for effective monitoring of the performance of network code and impact on the domestic gas market segment
- Develop a periodic network code reporting template for submission to the network code steering committee
- Review domestic gas market impact of NGTNC post full operationalisation of the code
Team 2 is the Commercial/Legal Working team (NCO-CLWT) comprising eight members drawn from NGC and DPR
Their three Terms of Reference are to articulatethe legal modalities and identify/resolve any legal encumbrance for the successful migration of all existing Gas Transportation Agreements (GTA’s) to NC; review the tariff methodology and values for all envisaged payments/charges on the code; and annalyse and make recommendation on issue of payment in dollar or naira for the network tariffs and charges.
The Team 3 is the Steering/Governance Committee (NCO-SGC) with the Director of DPR as the Chairman. The three other members are the MD of NGC, the Head Gas at DPR and the Head, Legal at DPR. This team has three terms of reference that consist of, directing the activities required for full operationalisation of the NGTNC; administering governance oversight of the NGTNC technical, Commercial and Legal working committees; and interfacing with the Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva on the code while providing strategic market update on the impact and performance of the NC.
