Don't Miss

Power: Our last few days disastrous – Nebo

By BusinessNews Staff on May 30, 2015

The immediate past Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has described as disastrous the power situation across the country, particularly toward the end of his tenure.

Nebo, who profusely lamented the spate of vandalism of gas pipelines and its impact on the power sector, stated that the recent industrial action by oil and gas workers worsened the situation.

Speaking at a send-off organised for him and the immediate Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil, by the ministry in Abuja on Wednesday night, Nebo stressed that the situation was so bad that it almost crumbled the nation’s economy.

He stated that while the Federal Government was striving to address the issue of incessant vandalism of gas pipelines, little did it know that the sector would be thrown off-balance as a result of the strike by workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria and its sister body, the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Employees.

Nebo called for stringent measures to ensure energy security and noted that until the circumstances surrounding the supply of gas to the power plants were adequately addressed, the country would continue to experience poor electricity supply.

He said, “Energy security must be addressed in a holistic manner. Can you imagine that because of the strike, Nigeria was almost crumbled? I have never seen anything like what I experienced and went through in my last few days in office as a minister. It was disastrous!

“With what happened, it means that the gas war has not been won and unless we win it, we cannot go forward. The first phase of the war has to do with the issue of gas pipeline vandalism and it may interest you to know that millions of dollars are spent fixing these gas pipelines on a monthly basis.”

The ex-minister stated that about N120m was being spent monthly by the Federal Government to fix burst gas pipelines, adding that about N3bn had gone into the repair of the pipelines since he came on board.

Nebo stated that the next issue that should be addressed before the power plants could have enough gas to run their electricity generating turbines was the discrimination against power producers by gas suppliers.

He stated that the ministry, in partnership with other stakeholders, had worked hard to ensure that the price of gas supplied to the power plants was increased, but regretted that this had yet to yield the expected result.

The Federal Government had on Monday announced that 18 electricity generation plants out of the 23 across the country were not generating power, adding that the country lost over 2,000 megawatts of electricity as a result of the development.

It attributed the cause of this to pipeline vandalism and the industrial action embarked upon by oil and gas workers.

The Nigerian National Electricity Commission had stated, “This bad supply condition has worsened in the last few days. At present, 18 out of the 23 power plants in the country are unable to generate electricity due to shortage of gas supply to the thermal plants, with one of the hydro stations faced with water management issue.

“This has led to the loss of over 2,000MW in the national grid. This situation is further compounded by the recent industrial action embarked upon by workers in the oil and gas industry, a development which is taking a toll on other sectors of the economy. Gas supplies to the thermal plants have been further constrained by the industrial actions of workers in the oil and gas industry.”

Nebo, also on Monday, stated that the strike resulted in the shutdown of major gas plants, including Utorogu, Chevron Oredo and Oben in the western axis.

The ex-minister said the Ughelli and CNL Escravos plants were all isolated, adding that the shutdown of Shell Gas, Alakiri, on the eastern axis, had caused several power plants to become stranded.

Other power plants that were shutdown, according to Nebo, are Egbin, Olorunshogo I and II, Geregu I and II, Ihonvor and Sapele NIPP on the eastern end.

[Punch]

headline