26 August 2016, Abuja – As part of measures to improve electricity supply across the country, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, the Group Managing Director, Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, has called for the diversification of power generation in the country. He made this call at the Nigeria Association of Energy Correspondent, (NAEC) Conference 2015, held at Eko Hotel, Lagos recently.
Kachikwu revealed that Nigeria should be ready to extend its energy generation beyond natural gas, hydro and oil sources to meet its power needs. He noted that apart from the percentage contribution of power estimated at natural gas- 39.8 percent, hydro- 35.6 percent and oil-24.2 percent, the country is endowed with the mix of other conventional energy reserves including coal , solar, wind , biomass and potential for nuclear.
“Diversification into available resources will reduce the country’s dependence on oil and gas, thereby setting the stage for sustainable development. Reserves availability of the various energy sources include crude oil -36 billion bbls, natural gas-1.80 trillion standard cubic feet, coal and lignite – 2.7 billion tones, tar sands- 31 billion boe, hydro-power- 14,750 MegaWatt, solar -Abt 7.0kWh/sq meters per day, wind 2-4m/s at 10m height, biomass 320 million hectares and nuclear is yet to be quantified.
The NNPC boss further disclosed that all economies of the world require energy to power both industrial and residential activities. According to him natural gas is increasingly becoming the fuel of choice for power generation, given the current power generation challenge confronting Nigeria and its huge untapped gas reserves. He further cautioned that the country cannot be an exception to this ongoing gas to power revolution.
‘‘Today in the country, the strategic intent is to deploy natural gas as a dominant fuel for power generation with an immediate objective of attaining at least a five-fold increase in gas fired power generation capacity from about 3,000 MW in 2003 to 15,000MW by 2018. This is because gas-fired power generation has been the primary driver of worldwide increment gas demand. This growth was driven by two key factors – firstly, increasing electricity demand fueled by economic growth and secondly, replacement of an aging coal-fleet in Europe and North America.
‘‘NNPC is posed to significantly improve the gas utilization to forestall energy crisis, adding that the domestic gas production in the country has grown from 700mscfd in 2012 to current over 1bcfd per day. Daily gas volumes of 3.5bcfd can support close to 16 GiggaWatt of electricity. Emphasis has therefore been placed on the development of gas such that additional volumes are being pushed to the domestic market.’’ he noted.
Meanwhile, the GMD disclosed that provision of gas infrastructure will enable increased supply of gas to the domestic economy through gas utilization in power and other industrial sectors. He added that this will have a huge impact on the domestic economy through improved GDP, import substitution and employment generation. He further noted that the corporation is committed to monetize and capture gas and power opportunities.
– Vanguard