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
Favour Ajibade
Nigeria, Ghana, Libya, Sierra Leone, Egypt and the remaining fourty nine countries in Africa would need an average of $200billion investments in grid electricity in five years time, the Group Managing Director, Sahara Power Group, Mr Kola Adesina, has said.
He said all the countries in the continent, would averagely invest $40 billion yearly on grid investments in the next five years. Overall, this amount to $200billion in the period stated above.
According to him, the investments would the continent to deliver stable electricity to their citizens for socio-economic growth.
Delivering a keynote address on “The Future of Power in Africa” at the Lagos Business School recently, Adesina said that the projections indicate an increase in energy demand across Africa in the coming years.
He noted that in 2040, this demand could be around 30 per cent higher than what was obtainable currently, adding that it was vital for all stakeholders to work towards shoring up the continent’s power grids through continuous investments.
“Massive investment in Africa’s grids is critical to improve system reliability, expand access and facilitate the integration of variable renewables.Annual investment in electricity grids should more than triple in the 2026‐30 period, compared with 2016‐20, reaching $40bn per year on average. Distribution networks account for over two‐thirds of this total.”
According to him,the projected increase in energy and electricity demand makes access to electricity a quest that Africa must pursue relentlessly.
“In 2021, 43 per cent of the population of Africa, around 600 million people, still lacked access to electricity, 590 million of them were in sub‐Saharan Africa,” he said.
He said,90 million people, or six per cent of the current total population would need to gain access each year on average from 2022 for every African to have access to electricity by 2030
“Africa needs to generate 575 terawatt‐hours more in 2030 than in 2020 to meet the increase in electricity demand projected, an average rate of growth of five per cent per year,” he added.
Power experts say most electricity on the continent are currently produced by thermal plants – gas in many coastal areas, including North Africa; coal in South Africa in particular; and older, generally smaller oil fuel plants almost everywhere.
There are also industry projections that the use of drones and digitalisation, including geographic information systems, outage management systems and smart metering is expected to increase among African power players.
Adesina advocated the need for market reforms and outlined the priority areas for action to include tariff structure reform, and use of concession agreements granting rights to private operators. Others include regulatory carve‐outs for private sector investment and ownership and the introduction of auctions and competitive tenders.
“Reforms to make electricity tariffs cost reflective has been implemented or is under discussion in 24 African countries,” he added.
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