(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigeria government has been told to engage the aboriginal gas companies as a way of boosting gas production if the country must meet its power and other gas related needs.

The Chief Executive Officer of Frontier Oil Limited, Dada Thomas (photo), made this call at the annual conference of the National Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC) in Lagos. Businessday reports

 To him, “some 182tcf of gas is in Nigeria waiting to be developed. What is lacking and urgently required are the political will, enabling policy, commercial and regulatory framework to unleash the true potential of gas to the benefit of all Nigerians”.

Thomas further said that the future for gas and gas-to-power in Nigeria is bright and called on the government to grant the kind of incentives it did for the International Oil Companies (IOCs) in the past to aboriginal operators who contribute over 53 % of local gas production in Nigeria.

He condemns the current gas prices in Nigeria describing it as lesser than what is obtainable in markets around the world. This, according to him, has made the gas business less attractive than the oil business for more than 40 years.

Nevertheless the solution to this is “for the gas transactions to be based on a willing-buyer-willing-seller market-driven commercial platform in which the government is removed from regulating the commercial transactions between interested parties.”