By Miriam Humbe
The Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo has attributed the inability of government to sufficiently deliver on reform efforts in the power sector to the shortfall in supply of gas and incessant attacks on the infrastructure that supply these power plants by vandals.
Prof Nebo said this yesterday in a speech presentation titled: Nigeria’s Power Sector Transformation Story – Lessons from Emerging Market Economies at the Nigerian Society of Engineers, NSE Presidential Expert Group Meeting on Developing an Infrastructural Scorecard Roadmap for Nigeria in Abuja.
“Due to the current shortfalls in the supply of gas, many power plants built to provide power to Nigerians are only able to utilize a fraction of their installed capacity. Of the original six power plants that were privatized, not one is functioning at up to seventy percent of installed capacity.
“To make matters worse, many of the gas infrastructure that supply these power plants have come under attack by vandals with various agendas. Oil thieves are breaking up gas pipelines in hopes of finding oil to steal. Political enemies are hoping to reduce power supply in one area or the other in an effort to sabotage opponents”, he said.
He however said government, through the Minister of Petroleum Resources is locating gas power plants closer to gas sources in marginal fields and our inland basins to reduce the risks and costs of gas transportation over long pipelines as well as assessing options for domestic use of Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG as fuel for power plants located at far distances from gas sources or supply lines.
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