Regulators in the power sector as well as the oil and gas industry are working together to address the perennial challenges facing gas-fired power plants in the country.
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Nigerian Gas Company and Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc are developing new strategies to prevent shortage of gas.
Nigeria has over 203 trillion cubic feet of gas but most power plants relying on gas are faced with a shortage as bottlenecks continue to cause power outages.
The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, had last week tendered a public apology over the poor electricity supply in the country, blaming the development on gas-related challenges, which rendered about six gas power plants idle.
During a stakeholders’ meeting held in Abuja on Monday, the Director of DPR, Sarki Auwalu, said the challenges facing the value chain had been identified and would be addressed with immediate effect.
Auwalu said the concerns of the electricity generation companies (DisCos), which continue to impede gas availability, were genuine and needed urgent attention.
According to him, the Nigerian Gas Transportation Network Code (NGTNC), which was launched last year, is being tweaked to address inherent issues.
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Auwalu added that the agency had also identified challenges facing the explorers and producers of gas and had developed strategies to tackle them.
“Everybody has been considered in the gas network code to make sure that the explorer, producer, the shipper, the transporter and the users are all involved in costing the gas, so that gas is affordable and available,” Auwalu said.
The director noted that the country could no longer sit on over 203 trillion cubic feet of gas as well as unproven 600 trillion cubic feet while struggling with domestic utilisation of the resources.
The Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, noted that there were commercial issues with gas supply, which he noted provide over 70 per cent of the country’s electricity generation source.
