Despite the fact that the average national daily gas supply to the nation’s power plants has risen by 64 percent, most consumers still agonise over the lack of adequate supply in most parts of the country.
The national power generated as of yesterday morning was put at 3,656.40 megawatts (mw) down from 4,345.5mw because of what some power industry operators attributed to lack of gas and other technical issues.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Financial and Operations Report for May 2017, which disclosed the increase in supply, stated that the average Natural Gas supply to power plants during that period was 729 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscfd), which was 63.74 percent higher than the daily gas supply to the plants of 446mmscfd, supplied the power plants during the same month in 2016.
The report said the average national daily gas production for May 2017 stood at 242.70billion cubic feet (BCF) or an average of 7,829.11mmscfd, representing a slight increase, compared with April gas production of 672mmscfd.
It also stated that NNPC, within the period under review, activated plans to build 500million standard cubic feet of gas-per-day metering plant to serve the planned capacity expansion of Egbin Power Plant.
Despite this great improvement power generation still fluctuates between 3,656.40 megawatts (MW) As a matter of fact about generation peaked at 3,656mw as at the early hours of yesterday. While the lowest generation recorded on Wednesday was1,191.6mw. This is against the national demand forecast 19,100.00mw.
Currently the there is Installed Capacity of 11,165.40mw, but with available capacity of 7,139.60mw.
However, the current transmission capability is put at 7,000mw, but the network is only able to transport 5,500mw.
The NNPC said the gas value chain had developed capabilities in processing, transportation and marketing of gas for export and domestic utilisation. He further added that the nation’s gas resources had the potential of changing the landscape of the Nigerian economy for the better.
“If you generate enough power, the multiplier effect will revive most of the moribund industries across the country. NNPC intends to capture 50 per cent of the gas market in Nigeria by growing the Nigerian Gas Marketing Company (NGMC) from the 500 million standard cubic feet/day of gas that it is today to about 3 to 4 billion standard cubic feet/day in the next 10 years,” the COO enthused.
The corporation requires about $15 billion investment to realize the Gas and Power Autonomous Business Unit, and discussions are already ongoing with Investors worldwide to address gas deficit by building on the already existing gas infrastructure.
The report, the 22nd edition, like the previous ones, is designed to promote and sustain effective communication with stakeholders.
According to the report, the three refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna were operational in May 2017, with a minimum of 6m litres of PMS, otherwise called petrol, and a similar quantity of Automotive Gas Oil, also known as diesel, loaded out from the refineries daily.
The three NNPC refineries have a combined nameplate capacity of 445,000 barrels of crude oil per stream day. The report indicated that the rehabilitation of the refineries would restore their nameplate capacities.
Diesel price, the report also noted, witnessed a nationwide crash by as much as 42 per cent following strategic intervention by the Corporation to sustain supply of diesel and avoid the first quarter, 2017 unpleasant experience when the retail price of AGO shot to an all-time high of N300 per liter. The intervention pushed the product’s retail prices as at May 2017 to rally between N175 and N200 across the country.
Another high point of the May report is that there was a decline in the incidents of oil pipeline breaks which had, in recent time, witnessed a steady reduction through the months following the sustained community/stakeholders’ engagement initiative.
It further said that the number of pipeline breaks recorded within the period stood at 55, which was an improvement compared to 82 vandalized points recorded in April 2017. This figure represents about 33 percent reduction relative to the previous months and also a remarkable improvement to the corresponding period of May 2016, which recorded 260 cases.
During the period under review, the reports informed that NNPC stepped up efforts to actualize the government’s initiative on co-location of some refineries.
The issue is available on the NNPC website and in national dailies as well as some online news portals.
