The Federal Government has announced a new price of natural gas for power generation companies.

An agency of the Federal Government, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), unveiled the new domestic base price and wholesale prices of natural gas for 2024, jacking it up to $2.42 per metric million British thermal units, from the previous rate of $2.18mmbtu.

Announced and signed by the Chief Executive, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, it also pegged the cost of commercial gas at $2.92mmbtu, up from the previous cost of $2.5mmbtu.

Ahmed said the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 assented to by President Bola Tinubu on August 16, 2021, and gazetted in August 2021, provided a clear regulatory framework for the determination of a market-based pricing regime for the domestic gas market.

He further explained that the increase was in line with section 167, the third and fourth schedule of the PIA 2021, which mandated the regulator to determine the Domestic Base Price and the marketable wholesale price of natural gas supplied to the strategic sectors.