LNG Picked for Kaduna Power Plant: Greenville
A company representative of Greenville LNG told NGW September 14 that it will supply LNG to the Kaduna power plant after its official launch.
However, the federal ministry of power is not divulging details of the date of official launch of the plant.
Currently, there are no gas pipelines yet built to Kaduna state, so the power project will be dependent on the use of trucks to deliver the LNG to the plant. Since December 2017, investor Greenville LNG has been awaiting a confirmation that it may supply LNG to the plant, following an investigation launched by the Nigerian Senate into the rescinding of MoU terms agreed with the company by the power ministry.
The power ministry, headed by Babatunde Fashola, had opted out of the earlier agreement signed in August 2017 for LNG supplies, in favour of diesel, which is considerably more expensive.
The company representative told NGW that Greenville LNG had held its ground while meeting with government officials to ensure LNG is the chosen source of fuel for the 215 MW power plant.
A probe carried out by the Nigerian Senate Committee on Gas, headed by Senator Albert Bassey, determined that the reason for the refusal by the federal ministry of power to honour the contract terms may simply have been because they stemmed from an agreement inked during the Goodluck Jonathan administration, which ended in 2015.
A former ministry of power, grid advisor, Ronald Verraneault, told NGW that in a bid to encourage further investment in the gas sector, it is imperative that the power ministry and other stakeholders honour agreements. He went further to state that Greenville LNG had self-financed its $500mn mini-liquefaction unit without state guarantees, thus demonstrating its commitment to a project that will deliver power to Kaduna, located in northern Nigeria, an area with inadequate electricity supplies. NGW reported in February 2018 that Greenville had already imported 250 trucks to transport LNG to the Kaduna plant.
Banner photo shows trucks in front of Greenville's mini-liquefaction unit, at Rumuji in Nigeria's southern Rivers State, ready to deliver LNG to the north of Nigeria (Photo credit: Greenville LNG)