The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, has indicated that the Federal Government is deepening its gas deployment to the power sector with the aim of improving electricity supply through gas powered plants.
Kachikwu who made this known at the National Association of Energy Correspondents (NAEC) conference, said “NNPC is already poised to significantly improving gas utilization to forestall a crisis.” He noted that the immediate objective of the initiative is to attain at least a five-fold increase in gas fired power generation from about 3,000 megawatts (MW) in 2003 to 15,000MW by 2018.
He however said the efforts are currently being hampered by inadequate gas pipeline infrastructure to meet current and projected demand growth. “Lack of connectivity between East and West coupled with limited throughput capacity has severely constrained supplies,” the GMD said.
He noted that the NNPC was committed to the provision of gas infrastructure which would enable increased supply of gas to the domestic economy through gas utilization in power and other industrial sectors.
