Poor power supply is due to vandalised gas pipeline – Minister of Power

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►Chinedu Nebo says the poor power supply experienced across the country is as a result of  vandalised gas pipeline, a development that cuts off gas supplies.
►The minister said it took more than 7 months to fix the Escravos-Lagos pipeline that was destroyed.
►He explained that when the NIPP projects were conceived, it was to help increase power supply but it was later discovered that there was no gas supplies to these projects.

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Nigeria’s Minister of Power, Professor Chinedu Nebo says the poor power supply experienced across the country is as a result of  vandalised gas pipeline, a development that cuts off gas supplies.

The minister said it took more than 7 months to fix the Escravos-Lagos pipeline that was destroyed. “It took such a long time because as you begin to fix, pressurize and test, you find out there are more leakages

“The leakages continue, so it took many cycles of fixing and testing and while that was going on there was no gas coming from those lines, but now we are back on.

“For the past weeks we have been averaging 4,1000 megawatts and that has not happened in a long time, so things are really looking up,” he noted.

On Afric-tv24’s Saturday breakfast programme, The Minister said that for the first time in a long time, there had been so much synergy between the Ministry of Power and Ministry of Petroleum Resources to address the issue of gas supply.

He explained that when the NIPP projects were conceived, it was to help increase power supply but it was later discovered that there was no gas supplies to these projects. “The NIPP project is being addressed right now and efforts are being made to ensure that by the end of the year there will be gas to all the plants”.

The Minister further stated that there is gas in the east and that the government was making efforts to connect the east and west. According to him the challenge is that there is no connecting axis, a situation that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is working hard to provide a tie in.

The Minister, however, assured Nigerians that there would be improved power supply, stating that by the end of the year, expected gas supply will come on board.

“We have an assurance from the Petroleum Resources that gas will be available to get us vastly improved power supply,” he added.

Contrary to complaints by Nigerians of poor power supply that the entire country is still experiencing six months after the privatisation of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, Professor Nebo said that there had been an improvement in power supply, explaining that previously, the nation was barely doing 3,5000 megawatts but the past couple of weeks has seen an increase to above 4000 megawatts.

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