Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has increased gas supply for power generation by 149 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd).
This was disclosed by the national oil company in its latest monthly operations report, which said it supplied 640 mmscfd of gas to gas-fired power plants in January last year to generate 2,683 Megawatts but increased the supply of gas in November to 789 mmscfd to produce 3,358MW.
“A total of 789 mmscfd was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of November 2020 to generate an average power of about 3,358MW compared with October 2020 when an average of 750mmscfd was supplied to generate 2,801 MW,” the NNPC stated.
Giving a further breakdown, out of the 1,332.82 mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in November 2020, about 788.64 mmscfd of gas representing 59.2 per cent was supplied to gas-fired power plants.
The balance of 544.18 mmscfd or 40.8 per cent was supplied to other industries across the country, according to the report.
“Similarly, for the period of November 2019 to November 2020, an average of 1,214.27 mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market comprising an average of 711.42 mmscfd or 58.6 per cent as gas supply to the power plants and 502.86 mmscfd or 41.41 percent as gas supply to industries.”
Nigeria has 23 power plants, of which just two are hydro plants, which generates between 4000-5000 megawatts per day.
Despite this, the conditions of the plants could not meet the expected demand for 200 million Nigerians as Nigeria needs at least 30,000 MW to attain energy sufficiency.
