Nigeria, the world’s fourth-biggest liquefied natural gas exporter, plans to increase domestic gas prices to boost supply to power plants hit by shortages.

The nation will apply “export-parity pricing” in 2016, Timothy Okon, group coordinator of strategy and planning at Nigerian National Petroleum Corp. said yesterday in an interview at the Power Investors Summit in Abuja, the capital. That means producers will get the same price locally as they would for export projects such as LNG contracts, he said.

Nigeria needs gas to supply power companies as it seeks to build an electricity market after in September finalizing the sale of 60 percent stakes in 15 power distribution and generation companies spun out of the former state-owned monopoly, Power Holding Co. Current output is about 2,000 megawatts, or half total capacity, due to gas shortages caused by sabotage on pipelines, Sam Amadi, chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, which oversees the power industry, said yesterday. One megawatt is enough to supply about 2,000 average European homes.

“There’s no use being an exporter of gas, but then be using candles at home,” Okon said at the yesterday. Nigeria’s gas supply needs to triple to satisfy current demand, driven by the power sector, he said.

Nigeria exported about 27 billion cubic meters of LNG in 2012, making it the world’s biggest supplier after Qatar, Malaysia and Australia, according to BP Plc’s Statistical Review. Supply from Nigeria fell more than 3 million metric tons last year, equivalent to almost 4 billion cubic meters of gas, BG Group Plc said March 18.

Source: Bloomberg