Nigeria's Gas Supply to Power Plants Improves
Nigerian state producer NNPC data show that average natural gas supply to the country's power plants more than doubled year on year in June 2017.
According to NNPC’s June 2017 Operations and Financial Report, released August 29, gas supply to power plants was up by 123% year on year to 730mn ft3/d (from just 327mn ft3/d in June 2016). It was little changed (up 0.13%) from the 729mn ft3/d supplied in May 2017.
Generation statistics from the Nigeria Electricity System Operator show that in June 2017 peak generation was 4451 MW on June 9 while minimum generation of 78.4 MW was recorded on June 27. That compared with May 2017's peak of 4553.9MW (May 2) and trough of 188.1MW (May 8).
NNPC statistics for June 2017 also said that overall national gas production was 7,571.5 mn ft3/d – the equivalent of 78.3bn m3/yr-- slightly down on the previous month; this is understood to include not only sales gas but also gas reinjected to oilfields.
Nigeria's power minister Babatunde Raji Fashola said the first plan the government’s plan for stable power supplies starts with tackling the issue of too little power for over 170 million Nigerians. But he told the August 29 launch in Abuja of a Building Energy Efficiency Code, jointly funded by the European Union and the German government, that Nigerians can only achieve uninterrupted power supply if they also commit to conserving energy.
"Even when we have stable power, there is still that place we want to be, uninterrupted power which deals largely with you and me," said Fashola.
Omono Okonkwo