We have enough gas to generate about 6000MW by Q2 of 2017 but… ― NNPC

THE Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Thursday, stated that there is enough gas to generate about 4800MW to 6000MW by Q2 2017 based on its gas supply plan, but the power sector was currently struggling to evacuate 4500MW power due to DISCO’s incessant rejection of allocated load and transmission line constraints.

The corporation, who therefore, appealed to the militants in the Niger Delta to stop the attacks on pipeline infrastructure to enable it sustain its plan and grow the industry for the benefit of all Nigerians. It lamented that gas pipeline vandalism has been the most disruptive challenge to supply across the country.

Its Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr. Maikanti Kacalla Baru, who made this known in his keynote address themed: “Domestic Gas Utilization in Nigeria: From Producers to Users”, at an annual event of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), held in Abuja. He said, despite the difficult environment which the NNPC operates, the management was committed to ensuring adequate gas supply to meet the Nigerian industrial growth.

He said the corporation’s plan was, among others, anchored to grow gas supply to support the power sector, with a view to achieving at least a three-fold increase in generating capacity within five years.

The GMD explained that gas supply remained a challenge, and the challenge was now being addressed through the launching of the 12 Business Focus Areas termed the 12BUFA initiative. Pointing out that one of the 12BUFA initiatives was Gas Development, while the strategic plan under it was to increase domestic gas supply to 5bscfd by year 2020.

According to him, with the Nigeria’s current production averaging at 8.0bscfd, of which 1.3bscfd is for domestic consumption, 3.5bscfd for export, 2.5bscfd for re-injection/fuel gas use and about 0.7bscfd is flared, the need to encourage gas production to meet with the demand becomes paramount.

“Crude oil theft related outage of pipelines is also a challenge in the East, with recurrent breach of the Trans-Niger Pipeline (TNP) almost on a weekly basis. The result of this is major disruption of gas supply in the East, impacting on three power plants at Afam belonging to NNPC/SPDC JV, PHCN and RVSG.”

As part of a holistic strategy to position gas as the fuel of choice, Dr. Baru said the corporation has successfully completed a pilot programme to introduce natural gas as fuel for transportation through Compressed Natural Gas (CNG).

“Today, over 4000 cars, mostly commercial taxis, run on natural gas in Benin, served by a network of six gas filling stations. We are currently extending the CNG initiative to other parts of the country.”

“Apart from the obvious environmental benefit, use of gas in transportation is cheaper, taxi drivers save significantly on petrol cost by using gas, as CNG is sold at 46% the price of petrol. Dangote cement factories are converting their trucks to run on CNG as it is not only cheaper but it is neater and cleaner and pilferage free”, he assured.