Coal- to- Power will end pipelines vandalism in Nigeria – Nebo

By Etuka Sunday

The Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo has said that with the abundance of coal and other renewable including, Biomass, Solar, Wind, Small and Medium hydros, even Thermal, Nigeria has the insurance to deal with the monster called vandalism.

A statement by the Deputy Director, Press, Ministry of Power, Timothy Oyedeji quoted the minister to have spoken during the signing ceremony of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Atlas Petroleum Corporation yesterday in Abuja.

According to him, Nigeria needs to harness all its potentials, in order to build a robust energy mix, hence this development would render ineffective any incident of vandalism on its electricity supply.

The coming into coal to power by Atlas Petroleum is a welcome development, as history is about to be made. “While others are doing the talking, Atlas will do the action, he insisting that the promoter of Atlas Petroleum as a patriotic Nigerian”, is determined to put all the required fund to the development of this dream. “Atlas will be the first, to deliver more mega watts from coal”, he said.

Professor Nebo promised to help fast track other licences with various agencies, beginning with the Ministry of Mines, “we will also assist with the design of appropriate mining, as we must ensure everything works, adding that, the coal fired plant should start next year”.

Speaking earlier, the Minister of State, Hon. Mohammad Wakil said that today’s event is historic as the vast potentials of coal put at 2.8 billion metric tonnes of deposits has for years remained untapped.

He thus called on other genuine would be investors to catch in, into the new focus of coal to energy, insisting that such moves can only complement what Government is doing.

Permanent Secretary Power, Ambassador Godknows Igali had earlier in his introductory remarks said that Atlas Petroleum acclaimed performance record in the oil and gas sector is about to be replicated in the power sector by this MoU as it translates to more mega watts of coal to power.

The Promoter of the venture, and Chairman of Atlas Petroleum, Chief Arthur Eze, after the signing of the document assured the Minister of the company’s competence to deliver, “we have the ability and where withal to deliver, we will move fast to invest in coal to power”.