The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC)and its joint venture partners have emphasised that supply growth remainedtheir priority.
In a statement, the acting group general manager, group public affairs division of the Corporation, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, said many projects were being progressed to assure realization of this objective.
He said before the end of the year, about 200mmcf/d new gas would be added to the grid as some projects were billed for completion in June and September.
He said the trend was expected to continue through 2015 when many more projects were completed.
He informed that the Minister of Petroleum Resources had directed an accelerated implementation of the Nigerian Gas master-plan, saying this had resulted in an aggressive infrastructure development drive and major reforms of the commercial framework for gas in Nigeria.
“In the last 3 years alone, over 400km of new gas pipelines have been completed and we are expanding pipeline capacity and enhancing connectivity between various gas supply sources,” he said.
He further disclosed that PHCN and NIPP power plants were now connected to gas pipeline infrastructure while an additional 450km were under construction currently, out of which 340km was due to for completion by the end of 2014 and the balance by 2016.
“The on-going gas infrastructure work is the most extensive the nation has ever seen, with many new kilometers of pipeline being added every day. Gas production and supply has also grown to an all-time high of 1500mmcf/d from less than 500mmcf/d four years ago.
“A major part of this new supply is being directed to the power sector, whilst the non-power sector such as cement, manufacturing etc, have seen double increase in supply within the same period. Unfortunately, challenges of pipeline attack continue to undermine the impact of these great efforts.’’
He said electricity power generation had received a boost over with the repair of the sections of the sabotaged Escravos-Lagos Gas Pipeline (ELPS) network by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation(NNPC)recently.
He said the repair works, which had ended almost seven months of gas supply outage caused by “willful hacking of the pipeline in Delta State,” would enable the re-injection of almost 200 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of gas into the grid, the equivalent of about 700 mw of electricity.
He said the corporation has also completed repair works on the pulverized Trans-Forcados Pipeline which accounts for 230 mmcf/d of gas the equivalent of 805mw of electricity.
“With the latest successful repair of the ELPS, the NNPC within the last one week is injecting a total of 430 mmcf/d of gas into the grid which translates to 1, 505 Megawatts of electricity every day.”
He also said an additional 60mmcf/d was expected within three weeks when ongoing repair works at the Utorogu gas plant was projected for completion.
He said Nigerians should expect steady improvement in power availability through the course of the year.
He said despite short term challenges being experienced as a result of deliberate pipeline sabotage, the gas sector reform was on-going.
