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Jonathan inaugurates N90bn Uquo gas processing facility

By BusinessNews Staff on August 16, 2014

Nigeria’s power sector has received a boost as President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday inaugurated a 200 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, Uquo Gas Processing Facility, which has a capacity to power 1,000 megawatts (MW) of gas-fired power plants.

The N90 billion facility, which is located in Esiet-Eket Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State, and funded by Seven Energy, is the first of its kind to be built by Nigerian independents.
Speaking at the brief ceremony, Jonathan described the project as the largest of its kind in sub-Saharan Africa.

The president called on other operators to emulate Seven Energy and its partner, Frontier Oil.
He thanked Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State and the people of the state for providing the enabling environment for the investors.
“With this gas facility, Nigerians can now smile because it will boost power supply,” Jonathan said.

Also, speaking Akpabio commended the project sponsors, saying with the facility, the country was on course to achieve the target 10,000MW by the end of this year.

In his remarks, the Chief Executive Officer of Seven Energy, Mr. Phillip Ihenacho, stated that with just the two trains that had been installed, the gas plant could supply 200 million standard cubic feet per day of gas to fire power plants for the generation of 1,000 megawatts of electricity.
Ihenacho stated that Seven Energy spent N90 billion, translating to over $600 million in building the pipeline infrastructure and the associated pipeline infrastructure.

According to him, the gas plant would supply gas to the 190 megawatts capacity Ibom Power Plant and the 540 megawatts capacity Calabar Power Station built under the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP).

“There is a huge demand for energy in Nigeria, which has been overlook by many people. What is happening recently with the power reform and with the liberalisation in the power sector allows commercially-sustainable investments in the power sector that has a knock-on effect on the gas sector,” Ihenacho explained.

The Seven Energy boss further stated that the gas sector needs a strong power sector because the power sector would be a large customer of the gas sector.

Ihenacho further disclosed that the Uquo Marginal Field located in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 13, which produces the gas contains large quantity of gas but small volume of crude oil.

[This Day]

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