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
Nigeria's inability to generate 5,000 megawatts (Mw) was due to shortage of gas, its Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, has said.
This is coming on the heels of the lopsidedness in electricity generation, which traditionally has been around 4,000 Mw due to shortage of gas, regarded as a feedstock used in producing electricity.
While speaking to newsmen after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House, Abuja, Aliyu said that the government was that the generation has remained 4,000, despite the fact that the government entered into a contract with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc on the issue.
According to him: “Regarding the drop of electricity, you know the supply has so many players, gas, the cost, issues of gas to some power plants. They cannot switch on their plant, if they do you will experience some drop, once they switch on, the electricity will increase.
He said the government was unable to achieve 5,000 Mw, which its promised to do by July 1, this year, due to lack of enough gas, coupled with occasional drop in electricity in Nigeria.
“There may be drop in power generation due to fault of generator. I’ve been watching since like yesterday (Tuesday) evening; we had generation of around 4,600 megawatts and you know, we told you since July 1, we’ve been able to raise it up to 5000 when we activated the contract.
“And we have not been able to do so due to some issues around gas contracts, gas to power, which we are trying to take care of. And we have gone very far with that and I believe it is for that reason that we’re able to reach up to 4,600.
“This morning, it dropped to 4,100. So, this is what is happening. You will be experiencing this fluctuation due to all these issues around gas to power, because gas is not something that we control directly; they will not give you gas until you pay. So, we are looking at ways to solve that issue.
“It is the reason we are unable to reach that 5000 we promised you by July 1 of this year. But as you will see from that date, we have been around 4,000 megawatts since then.”
According to him, the federal government had firm contracts with only five out of the 28 Power Generating Companies (GenCos) but had to extend it to more GenCos to stabilise supply at 5000MW as of July 1.
The Minister, however, assured Nigerians that the government has, “all the ingredients” to solve the supply challenge soon.
He said: “We have 28 generating companies and only five or thereabout that we had firm contracts with. Firm contract means that what you agree upon, you must give or else there’ll be penalty. And there must be uptake. This is what it means to have a firm contract.
“Now, we extended that to other generating companies by July 1, to be able to have a firm contract to generate 5000 megawatts as a baseline and we’re not stopping there. We’ll start ramping up with the other ones. So, this is the situation. We are working round the clock to ensure that we raise capacity to the required level.”
The minister also said FEC approved N2,740,000,000, as revised estimates for the updated rates of building structures of compensation and resettlement of the communities affected by the construction of 700 megawatts Zungeru Hydroelectric power project.
He added that the amount revised the subsisting amount from N19,640,000,000 to N22,380,000,000.
“ I approached the Council yesterday to seek approval of revised estimates total costs for the updated rates of building structures of compensation and resettlement of the communities affected by the construction of 700 megawatts Zungeru Hydroelectric power project in the total sum of N2,740,000,000 which will revise the subsisting amount from N19,640,000,000 to N22,380,000,000 and the council graciously approved the request,” he added.t
On the strike action, which members of the National Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) called off yesterday ( Wednesday) after shutting down some power transmission stations in order to force the government to meet their demands, the Minister said the protesting workers have no grudges with his ministry, but the Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan.
Recall that the union went on strike, due to inability of the government to meet its demands, which include nonpayment of outstanding arrears owed former workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, suspension of conditions of service and career path for workers and the directive by the TCN board to conduct promotion interviews for acting principal managers who are moving to Assistant General Managers.
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