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Electricity problem in Nigeria will soon be over – NNPC

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Austin Oniwon, on Thursday said that the current poor power supply being experienced in … Continue reading Electricity problem in Nigeria will soon be over – NNPC


Transmission lines
transmission lines

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Austin Oniwon, on Thursday said that the current poor power supply being experienced in Nigeria would soon be over.

Nigeria generates a meagre 4,000megawatts of electricity for its 160million people.

He said the current shortage of gas supply to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, was being addressed by the President, Goodluck Jonathan.

Mr Oniwon who was represented by the Group Executive Director, Power and Gas of the NNPC, David Ige, disclosed this at the Chanomi Creeks, shortly after inspecting the Warri/Escravos Gas Pipeline being handled by FENOG Nigeria Limited.

He said that the completion of the on-going gas pipelines would boost power supply nationwide and commended FENOG Nigeria for rising to the occasion.

“We started this site visit on Wednesday; we have visited the Escravos/Lagos Gas Pipeline system, which is a major backbone pipeline in supplying gas to most of the pipelines in the country,” he said.

“We are impressed with the progress we are making on the pipeline scheduled for completion four weeks from now. With the pipeline, we would have put in place a permanent solution to the challenge of gas supply to Olorunsogo and hopefully increase generating capacity in the country.

“We are doing a significant work to make that happen. We have completed the pipeline between Oben and Geregwu. The beauty is that we are not just addressing the power problem; we are addressing a wider gas industrialization problem.

“As you can see, this is being delivered 100 per cent by an indigenous company, FENOG and you can see the quality of the equipment that we have seen here, this is world class equipment, this is a perfect example of the kind of synergy we see between the agenda of the gas and oil sector as well as the Local Content for the empowerment of our people.”

The Minister of Power, Berth Nnanji had on Monday announced that the shortage of gas supply coupled with the low quantity of rainfall last year will worsen the nation’s power supply.

According to the Minister “a number of the gas power plants have gas constraints, gas limitation; some are not getting at all”, adding that “we don’t want to blame gas as the only reason why we have power problem in the last three weeks because of limited rain last year. The black flood did not really arrive; as a result we have severe shortage with water.”

He also explained that the power plant at Shiroro dam, is presently working for three hours due to the low level of water from the Shiroro dam. “Power is shut down for most of the day except from 7 to like 10’O clock.” “That is when power is available” he said.