Power: Our last few days disastrous, says Nebo
Prof. Chinedu Nebo
| credits: theabujatimes.com
| credits: theabujatimes.com
The
immediate past Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, has described as
disastrous the power situation across the country, particularly toward
the end of his tenure.
Nebo, who profusely lamented the spate
of vandalism of gas pipelines and its impact on the power sector, stated
that the recent industrial action by oil and gas workers worsened the
situation.
Speaking at a send-off organised for him
and the immediate Minister of State for Power, Mohammed Wakil, by the
ministry in Abuja on Wednesday night, Nebo stressed that the situation
was so bad that it almost crumbled the nation’s economy.
He
stated that while the Federal Government was striving to address the
issue of incessant vandalism of gas pipelines, little did it know that
the sector would be thrown off-balance as a result of the strike by
workers under the aegis of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff
Association of Nigeria and its sister body, the Nigeria Union of
Petroleum and Natural Gas Employees.
Nebo called for stringent measures to
ensure energy security and noted that until the circumstances
surrounding the supply of gas to the power plants were adequately
addressed, the country would continue to experience poor electricity
supply.
He said, “Energy security must be
addressed in a holistic manner. Can you imagine that because of the
strike, Nigeria was almost crumbled? I have never seen anything like
what I experienced and went through in my last few days in office as a
minister. It was disastrous!
“With what happened, it means that the
gas war has not been won and unless we win it, we cannot go forward. The
first phase of the war has to do with the issue of gas pipeline
vandalism and it may interest you to know that millions of dollars are
spent fixing these gas pipelines on a monthly basis.”
The ex-minister stated that about N120m
was being spent monthly by the Federal Government to fix burst gas
pipelines, adding that about N3bn had gone into the repair of the
pipelines since he came on board.
Nebo stated that the next issue that
should be addressed before the power plants could have enough gas to run
their electricity generating turbines was the discrimination against
power producers by gas suppliers.
He stated that the ministry, in
partnership with other stakeholders, had worked hard to ensure that the
price of gas supplied to the power plants was increased, but regretted
that this had yet to yield the expected result.
The Federal Government had on Monday
announced that 18 electricity generation plants out of the 23 across the
country were not generating power, adding that the country lost over
2,000 megawatts of electricity as a result of the development.
It attributed the cause of this to pipeline vandalism and the industrial action embarked upon by oil and gas workers.
The Nigerian National Electricity
Commission had stated, “This bad supply condition has worsened in the
last few days. At present, 18 out of the 23 power plants in the country
are unable to generate electricity due to shortage of gas supply to the
thermal plants, with one of the hydro stations faced with water
management issue.
“This has led to the loss of over
2,000MW in the national grid. This situation is further compounded by
the recent industrial action embarked upon by workers in the oil and gas
industry, a development which is taking a toll on other sectors of the
economy. Gas supplies to the thermal plants have been further
constrained by the industrial actions of workers in the oil and gas
industry.”
Nebo, also on Monday, stated that the
strike resulted in the shutdown of major gas plants, including Utorogu,
Chevron Oredo and Oben in the western axis.
The ex-minister said the Ughelli and CNL
Escravos plants were all isolated, adding that the shutdown of Shell
Gas, Alakiri, on the eastern axis, had caused several power plants to
become stranded.
Other power plants that were shutdown,
according to Nebo, are Egbin, Olorunshogo I and II, Geregu I and II,
Ihonvor and Sapele NIPP on the eastern end.
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