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Energy words, simply

The jargon in energy news, explained the way you would explain it to a friend.

AGO: Automotive Gas Oil. The official name for diesel.
Band A: The electricity tariff band for customers whose feeders are meant to get at least 20 hours of supply a day. They pay the highest rate per unit because they are promised the most power.
bpd (barrels per day): How oil output is measured. One barrel is 159 litres.
Brent crude: The world's main benchmark oil price. Nigerian crude grades such as Bonny Light are priced in relation to it.
CNG: Compressed natural gas. Natural gas squeezed into high-pressure tanks so vehicles can run on it instead of petrol or diesel. It is usually cheaper per kilometre.
Condensate: A very light liquid that comes up with natural gas. Some reports count it with crude oil output and some do not, so check which figure you are reading.
Deregulation: Letting the market set prices instead of government fixing them. Prices can then move up or down with costs.
DisCo: Electricity distribution company. The firm that owns the poles, wires and meters in your area, sends your bill and collects payment. Examples are Ikeja Electric and Abuja Electric.
Downstream: Selling refined products to the public: depots, trucks and filling stations.
DPK: Dual Purpose Kerosene. The kerosene used in lamps and stoves, and also as a base for jet fuel.
Estimated billing: When a DisCo bills you a guessed amount because you have no working meter. Regulators cap these estimates, and a meter is your best protection against them.
Exchange rate: How many naira it takes to buy one US dollar. Because fuel, equipment and gas are priced in dollars, a weaker naira pushes energy prices up.
Fuel subsidy: When government pays part of the cost of fuel so the pump price stays below the real market price. Nigeria ended its petrol subsidy in 2023, so pump prices now follow costs much more closely.
GenCo: Electricity generation company. It owns power stations and sells the electricity they produce into the grid.
Host community trust: A fund the PIA requires oil companies to set up for the communities where they operate, paid from a share of their operating costs.
Installed capacity: The most electricity power stations could produce if all of them ran at once. Actual output is usually far lower because of gas shortages, breakdowns and grid limits.
kWh (kilowatt-hour): The unit your electricity is sold in. One kWh is what a 1,000-watt appliance uses if it runs for one hour, roughly an electric iron on for an hour.
Landing cost: What it costs to bring a litre of imported fuel into Nigeria: the product itself, shipping, insurance and port charges. It rises when crude prices rise or the naira weakens.
LNG: Liquefied natural gas. Natural gas cooled to about minus 162 degrees Celsius so it becomes a liquid that ships can carry abroad.
LPG: Liquefied petroleum gas. The cooking gas sold in cylinders.
Midstream: Moving and processing oil and gas: pipelines, refineries and gas processing plants.
Mini-grid: A small local power network, often solar with batteries, that supplies a community, market or campus without relying on the national grid.
National grid: The network of power stations, transmission lines and substations that moves electricity around the country. When it 'collapses', supply drops across many states at once.
NERC: Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission. The federal regulator that licenses electricity companies and approves tariffs, except in states that have set up their own regulators.
NMDPRA: Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority. It regulates refining, depots, pipelines and fuel retail.
NUPRC: Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission. It regulates oil and gas exploration and production.
OPEC quota: The production limit OPEC members agree for each country. Nigeria often reports output against its quota.
PIA: Petroleum Industry Act, the 2021 law that reorganised how Nigeria's oil and gas industry is run and regulated.
PMS: Premium Motor Spirit. The official name for petrol.
Prepaid meter: A meter you load with units before you use them, like airtime. You pay only for what you buy.
Stranded power: Electricity that power stations could generate but the grid or DisCos cannot take, so it is never produced or used.
Tariff band: Nigeria groups electricity feeders into Bands A to E by how many hours of supply they get each day. More hours means a higher price per unit.
TCN: Transmission Company of Nigeria. It runs the high-voltage lines that carry power from power stations to the DisCos.
Upstream: Finding and producing oil and gas: exploration, drilling and running oil fields.