A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
By Akinola Ajibade
DOCTOR JOY OGAJI
The development, according to operators', who does not want to be mentioned, is having dire consequences on the activities of the firms, as they struggle to pay workers among meeting other obligations.
The News Mirror investigation shows that the companies, as a result of the debts, are finding bit difficult paying for gas, which is feedstock used in generating electricity in Nigeria.
This happens as generation dwindles in the last one month. For instance, generation has dropped drastically in the last five days( Monday, (March 20th) as a mere 2, 322.5 Megawatts ( Mw) electricity was generated that day, arguably one of the lowest in recent times.
Prior to this, generation fell to 1 145 Mw of electricity two weeks ago, a development, which stakeholders, including ( GenCos) believed might thrown the country into darkness, if measures were not taking to halt the problem.
With this, Nigeria s problems might have been compounded as the country is yet to come out of fuel scarcity, which has put the economy in s comatose.
In an interview with the News Mirror at the weekend, the Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies ( APGC) ,Dr Joy Ogaji, said that the country is facing crises, in the event that the N1.64 trillion debts owed the power firms are not paid
APGC is an umbrella association of electricity generation firms operating in the country, while NBET as an institution of the Federal Government, is saddled with some activities in the nation's electricity market.
According to her, neither NBET nor the government has shown interest in paying the debts, stating that the developments poses great challenge to the stabilization of the power market in the country.
The issue, Ogaji said, is worrisome in view of the fact that NBET disputed the amount, which it owes generation companies.
"Recently, NBET claimed that the debts owed power generation companies are a little bit above N500billion naira, including interests. But that is not true, as NBET owe us( APGC) over N1trillion." she added.
Giving insights into the debts through a paper entitled; Annual Average Historical Generation Data Between 2013 and 2021 and made available to the News Mirror recently, Ogaji said that the firms were owed N1.64 trillion as payment for the used capacity, adding that NBET, by law is supposed to lay the money, but has refused to do so.
Asked what the companies are doing in order to recover their debts, Ogaji said that the firms through APGC are consulting with relevant stakeholders in the country, with a view to ensure that the debts are paid to the companies.
She, however, refused to reveal the identities of the stakeholders, saying that the time is not ripe yet to do so.
Comments
Post a Comment