Ahamefula Ogbu
14 November 2009
Port Harcourt — The Minister of Power, Rilwan Babalola yesterday said the fedeereal government was still looking for gas to power some of the recently completed gas-powered generating plants across the country.
The minister who was on in Port Harcourt to inspect state of the power and gas stations in the area expressed concern that the shortage of gas remained a major threat to stable electricity supply in the country.
"I have been looking for gas because gas is the thing that all the stations need to run on. We had challenges in the past; so many things happened at the same time.
"Some had to do with additional structures to move out the volume of gas and some with the issue of militancy but we are working with a lot of companies like the NNPC to get the gas.
"Initially, there were some setbacks in the Niger Delta but things are getting better now. Contractors are back on the project sites, so we hope there will be improvement in gas supply.
"There was some lost time but we are working to recover that lost time and we have started seeing improvement in the supply of gas," the minister added.
He disclosed that all hands have been on deck to resolve the issues.
Babalola also said the Sapele and Omotosho thermal power stations have witnessed increased generation due to improved gas supply in the last few weeks.
"The Omotosho power plant which has been running on a very low capacity now has an increase in output from 150 megawatts to 220 megawatts. So also does the Sapele plant. This means there is improvement in gas supply and power generation," Babalola pointed out.
The minister said all indicators were pointing to the achievement of the federal government's projected 6,000 megawatts by December, "especially with the completion of evacuation capacity upgrade at the transmission yard in Afam, Rivers State."
Babalola also used the opportunity to inspect power and gas stations at Okoloma, Oyigbo Local Government Area of Rivers State and to address the issue of conflicting claims between the Power Holding Nigeria and Shell Petroleum Development Company, owners of the Afam VI Power Station over the inability of the former to evacuate power into the transmission grid.
"I am satisfied with the state of what I saw here. Everything is working well. The transmission network has the capacity to wheel out all the power generated here to Alaoji and Port Harcourt.
"Presently, we have more capacity to evacuate all the power generated from the Afam complex. We may have issues of redundancy on the line but the issue of evacuation has been addressed," the minister said after inspecting the facilities.
When the minister met with officials of the two companies, he advised them to hold a joint briefing on the situation to the press "to avoid conflicting claims with respect to capacity."
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