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
Electricity generating companies are currently owed about N1.7 trillion, the Executive Secretary, Association of Power Generation Companies,(APGC), Dr Joy Ogaji has said.
She said the companies are owing gas suppliers about N1trillion and banks N700bilion( loans servicing) totalling N1.7trillion since 2013.
Speaking, yesterday in Lagos, during the panel session at the Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria (NAEC) Strategic International Conference, Ogaji said that liquidity and gas are impediments to the operation in the generation value chain in Nigeria.
She stated that the power generation companies are still servicing loans used in acquiring the defunct assets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN) , adding that the sub-sector is facing a myriad of operational problems.
Ogaji
She urged the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) to intensify efforts to ensure remittances by the 11 electricity Distribution Companies for energy consumed by their customers.
According to her, GenCos are are ready to generate the power needed in Nigeria, adding that utilisation had been stagnated in the country for a long time due to transmission and distribution constraints.”
“Just to give you a context, on Nov.1, 2013, when the privatisation took place, power was 3,427MW on the day of takeover. On Dec. 1, 2013, power had gone from 3,427MW to over 4,003MW and by 2020 it had gone up to nearly 8,000MW,” she said.
She lamented that the average uptake of power from the GenCos was about 4,000MWh from 2013 till date which was not good for business.
The development, she said, is discouraging investors from investing in the country, as well as affecting the growth of the economy.
She said that producers are not incentivised to produce, due to declining level of their products.
Insufficient foreign exchange ( forex), Ogaji explained, is a big challenge in the industry, a development, which has constrained the operations of the companies in recent times.
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