Nigeria's Gas Supply to Power Plants Improves
Nigeria's daily gas supply to power plants increased by 64% year on year in May 2017, according to monthly data released by the state-owned producer.
Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) reported July 20 that gas supply to Nigerian power plants this May was 729mn ft3/d (20.65mn m3/d - or equivalent to 7.5bn m3/yr), compared with 446mn ft3/d, a rise of 64%. It was also higher than the April 2017 figure of 672mn ft3/d.
NNPC also reported that Nigeria's average gas production was 7,829.1mn ft3/d (221.8mn m3/d) in May 2017, representing a total for the month of 242.7 billion ft3 -- though not was sales gas. Figures include not just NNPC equity gas, but also the shares belonging to international and private sector firms
Its report also stated that the NNPC was planning a 500mn ft3/d metering station for the planned capacity expansion of Egbin Power Plant, a project that although has been mentioned since last year but which, as of May, had still not begun. Although the NNPC cites an Egbin expansion in its report, Egbin Power's managing director Dallas Peavey said March 29 2017 that the government owed it naira 110bn ($315mn) and that it might have to shut down.
Official data also show that Nigeria's power generation, which averaged 3,095 megawatts in May 2017, increased to 4,346MW on July 20, 2017.
Recently, the Nigerian government has made known its intentions to continually increase and stabilise the national grid. From its power generation data, however, power keeps fluctuating mostly due to the low capacity of power plants as well as ageing generation and transmission infrastructure.
At a July 19 meeting between the minister of state for petroleum resources, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and joint ad-hoc Senate committees on Nigeria's upstream and downstream sectors, it was announced that power generation and access to energy would be further enhanced by doubling the generation capacity of the Okpai IPP through a fast-tracking of its Phase II project to make it one of the largest combined cycle power plants in Africa.
However, the Okpai IPP Phase II project had been expected to add about 1000MW to the national grid since November 2015. To date, nothing has been done to start up the project. The plant, in Delta State, already generates 480MW.
Kachikwi and Eni chief Claudio Descalzi again committed in January 2017 to a doubling of Okpai when they met in Rome January 23 2017. Opened in 2005, the Okpai IPP is a joint venture of Eni and NNPC and is one of very few power plants to be part-owned by an international oil company in Nigeria.
Update: Shell said last week that force majeure was declared at the Bonny Light crude export terminal. "Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Ltd (SPDC) declared force majeure on Bonny light exports effective 12:00 hrs (Nigerian Time), July 13, 2017 following the shutdown of the Nembe Creek Trunk Line (NCTL) by the operator, Aiteo", Shell said without disclosing why the pipe was shut. Bonny Light was subject to FM in August-September 2016. The lifting of a 17-month force majeure on Forcados exports last month means that there are currently no other FMs in place in Nigeria, apart from at Bonny Light.
Omono Okonkwo