The volume of gas supplied to gas-fired power plants dropped from 820 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscfd) in February 2019 to 595mmscfd in September, the monthly report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) disclosed.
The report also disclosed that the development stalled the generation of 1,109 megawatts of electricity.
What it means: The NNPC monthly report indicates that the drop in gas supply resulted in a decrease in the power generation.
It added that the September 2019 report showed that while gas supply to power plants in February, March, April and May was 820mmscfd, 777mmscfd, 728mmscfd and 761mmscfd, power generation figures based on the monthly supply were 3,336MW, 3,223MW, 3,095MW and 2,958MW respectively.
Also, gas supply to the plants for June, July, August and September was 751mmscfd, 730mmscfd, 666mmscfd and 595mmscfd, while power generated from the monthly supply was 2,896MW, 2,864MW, 2,462MW and 2,227MW respectively.
[READ MORE: ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron delay $58.4 billion oil and gas investments in Nigeria)
Why it matters: While 820mmscfd volume of gas produced 3,336MW of electricity on the national grid in February, this quantum of power dropped to 2,227MW in September, signifying that 1,109MW of power could not be generated.
It was observed that the drop in power generation in September was due to the reduction in gas supply by 225mmscfd to power plants, as gas supply to the plants fell to 595mmscfd in that month.
“A total of 595mmscfd was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of September 2019 to generate an average power of about 2,227MW compared with August 2019 where an average of 666mmscfd was supplied to generate 2,462MW,” the report stated.
It further noted that out of the 1,074.86mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in September 2019, about 594.56mmscfd of gas, representing 55.32% was supplied to gas-fired power plants, while the balance of 480.30mmscfd or 44.68% was supplied to other industries.
“Similarly, for the period of September 2018 to September 2019, an average of 1,207.86mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market comprising an average of 718.14mmscfd or 59.46% as gas supply to the power plants and 489.72mmscfd or 40.54% as gas supply to industries,” it added.
