Gas man in the Decade of Gas: Aka Nwokedi drives NGA into 2023

Sopuruchi Onwuka

As his entire life continues to swirl in the world of petroleum gas, Mr Akachukwu Adeyinka Nwokedi enters the new year with a new role that will properly define him as a complete gas man who will lead players in the Africa’s biggest industry to define the new role of the resource in a changing global energy landscape.

Mr Nwokedi  who has risen to become the General Counsel and Company Secretary of the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) is now chosen by Nigeria’s largest gas industry group-Nigerian Gas Association (NGA)- to become its President for the next two years.

Currently the President-Elect, Aka Nwokedi, who is also former Managing Director of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), would now lead the Executive Council of the NGA into a very decisive period when industry investors and policy drivers are expected to give a unified fillip to numerous but related programmes captured in the Decade of Gas programme to realize the key objectives of decarbonizing the Nigerian petroleum production operations, cutting resource wastage, capturing economic benefits of gas commercialization and positioning gas for domestic energy security.

The Decade of Gas programme, captured as a pan-industry schema, rolls all existing gas policies and plans into a comprehensive movement that calls for public and private sector collaboration in deriving the economic and environmental benefits of gas valorization.

The programme is not new but currently requires a new and greater force in pushing the plans into action, especially in the face of the prevailing global demand for cleaner and more versatile energy. And the NGA has remained in the forefront of all advocacies that aim to push the hands of government towards the button that would ignite measures that translate to congenial fiscal and regulatory environment for rewarding commercial investments in harnessing produced gas.

The task of conditioning the operating environment to reward gas investors has been more than arduous, especially with pricing and gas supply obligation regulations that tie producers and suppliers to privileged consumers that  defy all payment obligations. Breaking the debt jinx in the gas-to-power programme and dismantling mandatory supply obligation remain waiting challenges for every industry leader in the Nigeria gas play.

In the broader industry, players and government have failed consistently to achieve convergence on the best incentives to spur investments in deepening and strengthening the domestic market to increase demand capacity. Potentials for huge market exist, supply gaps are widening and resources are in abundance.

The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently modified sections of the commercial routes that deliver returns from the market to players in the upstream end of the gas-to-power programme in a deliberate measure to address illiquidity in the system.  It also further liberalized the power sector by easing entry through captive markets and mini-grids.

The measures by NERC is perceived as significant opportunity for players to further deepen the market though off-grid power production under business models that do not necessarily entangle with the commercial stalemate in the gas-to-power programme.

However, whereas players wait in the wings to tap into the emerging opportunities and glean marginal revenues from produced gas, the expected fiscal and physical structures are yet to be installed. Mega-projects that build backbone gas transmission lines do not currently provide secondary feed lines that would be contiguous enough to incentivize off-grid power production for mainly rural communities. And price caps for segments of the economy including power and steel sectors remain sources of concern for suppliers who operate on global commercial templates.

Also in the Decade of Gas programme is the agendum to align the country into the global movement for energy transition, using gas as the country’s transition energy and economic live wire. This calls for private investments in the various government valorization initiatives that include the autogas, LPG penetration, virtual distribution pipelines like CNG and mini-LNG, and the flare gas commercialization.

These programmes, as laudable and well conceived as they are, have practically failed despite massive hypes due to deep infrastructure and facility gaps in flowing gas to market.

Other generic impediments in the Nigerian business environment including security risks, galloping inflation, waning purchasing capacity of the impoverished population, poor market returns, acute foreign exchange crunch, credit paucity, weak financial services industry, policy instability and many more also lay agenda for the incoming NGA executive committee.

Luckily, Mr Aka Nwokdi has been a regular backstage stalwart who has consistently organized and hosted innumerable policy and strategy debates that sought resolution for most of the disturbing and turbulent questions in the Nigerian gas industry.

Apart from building his career in Africa’s biggest natural gas processing company, he has been well positioned to maintain clear focus on the trends and topics in the global, continental and domestic gas industry. He has also been part of the resolution of issues and industry policy compliance processes.

As a longstanding Chairman of the conference organizing committee of NGA, Mr Nwokedi has spearheaded articulation of issues, problems and strategies that form the themes and topics that form the sets of agenda for the association’s annual confabs and policy debates.

With gas now in the foreground of global energy alternatives, the choice of Mr Nwokedi to lead the Nigerian gas players at this point is not only strategic, it is one of the best decisions of the group in taping from the repository of knowledge and understanding garnered across decades of his journey through the industry.    

The NGA election of December 15, 2022 in Lagos was not just part of the group’s another succession process. It produced a well groomed and industry sharpened President who has been in the line of the group’s activities over the years as Legal Advisor, Secretary General, Incentives Chairman, and Conference Committee Chairman.

Outside the NGA, Mr Nwokedi also has years of separate window on the industry from his office as the General Counsel and Company Secretary of NLNG Limited (NLNG).

An accomplished lawyer with 20 years experience, Aka holds a Masters degree in law from the University of Buckingham, United Kingdom.

Aka started his working career in 1996 as an Associate Counsel with Uche Nwokedi & Co (Solicitors) before joining NLNG as Legal Counsel, Technical & Projects in 1999 from where he rose to the position of Senior Counsel, Technical & Projects, supporting the corporate secretariats of NLNG and Bonny Gas Transport Limited (BGT).

In his roles, Aka Nwokedi rapidly transformed to transaction guard for the company, brokering sales and supply deals with local and multinational partners in deals that guaranteed robust profit margins and value delivery for all parties.

Notably, Aka delivered the Gas Supply Agreements (GSA) for NLNG’s Trains 3, 4 and 5 and the financing agreements for the NLNG-Plus Project. He was also NLNG lead legal counsel for the development of the NLNG Trains 4 & 5 Sales and Purchase Agreements (‘SPA’) with TFE and Iberdrola and a part of the team that developed the NLNG’s shipping strategy in 2005.

Aka has been pioneer Human Resources Manager for Career Development and Talent Management and later the Human Resources and Services manager for NLNG’s Production Division. He has also served as Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of NLNG Ship Management Limited (NSML), a NLNG subsidiary, repositioning the company from loss making to an organization delivering strong performance and sustained profit for the NLNG group, before his appointment as General Counsel and Company Secretary in July 2017.

Aka has strong leadership and motivational attributes with a proven track record in change management and driving organizational efficiency. He has led and delivered several complex assignments notable among which include Fit for 8 organizational effectiveness project, and relocation of NLNG’s Head Office from Lagos to Port Harcourt, Abuja and Bonny locations within a 90-day window on schedule, within budget and without a safety incident.

He is also a dedicated coach and mentor, and is an INSEAD alumnus.

Aka has been Secretary General of Nigeria Gas Association.

In his emerging roles, Aka Nwokedi is also expected to drive the industry side of the Nigeria’s national economic aspiration in the petroleum industry where numerous policies, strategies and programmes have been articulated in the Decade of Gas conceived to install natural gas as the parallel channel of petroleum income in the drive to build Nigeria into a more resilient economy.