Power supply can be boosted by 3,056 megawatts – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Monday said it supplied 689 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, mmscfd, to power plants in March 2017, an equivalent of 3,056 megawatts (MW) of electricity.

In a statement in Abuja, the NNPC, on the release of its March 2017 edition of the Monthly Financial and Operations Report, also stated that the average national daily gas production for the month of March stood at 226.918 billion cubic feet, bcf, which translates to over 7.319 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, mmscfd, Vanguard reports.

It stated that the increase in gas supply would support the efforts by the Federal Government to boost electric power generation in the country.

In the statement signed by its Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Ndu Ughamadu, NNPC explained that the March 2017 gas supply was an improvement on the previous month’s supply which stood at 582 mmscfd, adding that the supply is also over 29 per cent higher than the corresponding supply record for March 2016.

The NNPC noted that the increase in gas supply was in spite of an increase in oil assets vandalism, as pipeline sabotage in the country increased from 49 downstream pipelines vandalized points in February 2017 to 94 in March 2017.

It declared that this represents over 91 per cent increase relative to the previous months despite Federal Government’s and the NNPC’s continuous engagement with the stakeholders. Nevertheless, the NNPC maintained that there is a noticeable improvement compared to corresponding period of March 2016 which posted 259 cases. In the downstream sector, the NNPC said it has in stock, a robust inland supply of over 1.2 billion litres of petrol sufficient for more than 34 days for consumption.