Daily Independent (Lagos)
David Agba
1 December 2008
Abuja — Management of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has attributed the inconveniences being experienced by its customers nationwide to the persistent shortfall in gas supply to Egbin and Sapele thermal power stations by the Nigeria Gas Company (NGC).
This has resulted in generation limitation thereby giving rise to the ongoing load shedding and constant system disturbance.
Consequently, PHCN said it is now losing about 1000 megawatts generation capacity from the national grid, as Sapale power station is still shutdown while Egbin is running at further reduced capacity.
NGC and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) have attributed the gross shortfall in gas supply to damage done to their gas pipeline facilities as a result of vandalism.
"While we are sensitive to the plight of our customers, we wish to reiterate that the prevailing situation is due to factors beyond our control as the Nigerian Gas Company is yet to resume normal gas supply to the power stations.
"We appeal for understanding and assure that power supply will improve as soon as gas supply from the Nigeria Gas Company to the power stations is restored to full capacity," the management appealed.
SPDC said on Thursday that it is temporarily shutting down operations at its Soku gas plant in Rivers State to enable its engineers carry out urgently needed repairs to a section of the facility damaged recently by a significant increase in condensate theft from the plant's pipelines.
Consequently, the company has declared a force majeure on gas supplies to the multi billion dollar Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG) for the duration of the shut down.
The closure of the plant, which accounts for some 40 per cent of gas feedstock supplies to NLNG plant in Bonny Island, has also resulted in the issuance of a force majeure by the NLNG management to inform its customers of a possible disruption in its scheduled gas supply contract.
Force majeure is usually issued by a company to its customers to indemnify it from possible liabilities as a result of its inability to meet scheduled obligations that may have come as a result of a disruption of normal operations due to unforeseen developments.
A statement by the company's Head of Media/Communications, Tony Okenedo, said in recent months the number of illegal connections on pipelines encroaching on the Soku plant has reached an unacceptable level that significantly increased the safety risks of property and persons.
"To ensure the safety and security of staff, contractor staff and communities, urgent repair work must be carried out immediately on the pipelines outside of the perimeter of the plant.
"To do this safely, the plant must be shut down. SPDC will also clean up nearby environmental damage caused by condensate spilled in these illegal operations," Okonedo said.
SPDC Managing Director, Mutiu Sunmonu, said: "Our first responsibility is for the health and safety of our staff and our neighbours. "The level of theft from this pipeline has meant we had to remove more than 50 illegal valves in August and September alone. Over the last few weeks the situation has deteriorated rapidly and resulted in a situation where safety concerns dictated we had to shut in. We also approached a stage where we have questions regarding the integrity of the pipeline which we will check."
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