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The federal government has inaugurated a steering committee and joint technical working group (JTWG) to drive the establishment of a National Gas Infrastructure Command Centre (NGCC), a centralised digital platform designed to improve transparency, coordination, and efficiency across Nigeria’s gas value chain.
The committees were inaugurated Thursday in Abuja, according to Louis Ibah, spokesperson to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (gas).
The steering committee is chaired by Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (gas), with Patience Oyekunle, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, as alternate chair. Members include representatives of the Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, and Engineering Automation Technology Limited (EATL), the project promoter.
The JTWG includes EATL as technical and funding lead, alongside officials from the ministry’s gas and legal departments, the minister’s office, NMDPRA, NNPC, Gas Aggregator Company Nigeria (GACN)/Gas Transmission and Expansion (GTE), and the Decade of Gas Secretariat.
Backed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and enabled by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, the NGCC will provide real-time oversight of national gas infrastructure and support the government’s target of increasing gas production to 12 billion standard cubic feet per day by 2030.
The project will be delivered through a private sector-led public-private partnership under ICRC supervision, with no direct financial exposure to the federal government.
Ekpo described the centre as critical to Nigeria’s gas-to-power and industrialisation agenda, noting the steering committee will guide policy alignment, inter-agency coordination, and phased implementation. The JTWG will develop the technical framework, including system architecture, data standards, and operational protocols.
“The NGCC is a national asset that requires unified effort and measurable progress,” Ekpo said.
Oyekunle said the centre would enhance automation, infrastructure coordination, and job creation, while Olalekan Ogunleye, NNPC executive vice-president for gas, power, and new energy, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to partnering investors to advance Nigeria’s gas sector.
