12 March 2015, Abuja – The supply of electricity across the country will worsen in coming days due to the loss of about 800 megawatts of power as a result of the blasting of the Escravos Lagos Gas Pipeline at midnight of Wednesday.
According to the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, the recent damage was done by vandals, who ruptured the ELGP with an explosive device at Egwa, near Batan, in Gbaramatu Kingdom, Delta State.
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Media, Mrs. Kande Daniel, the minister said this attack, being the fourth this year, came only hours after repairs on an earlier attack of Sunday, March 1, 2015 were completed and gas were being piped through the pipeline again.
Nebo, in a statement on Thursday night, said the exact extent of the damage was being assessed but the impact was the loss of about 200 mmscf/d of gas, equivalent of about 800MW per day of generated power.
According to Nebo, it has become clear that the vandals, who perpetrate these acts are intent on crippling the power sector and bringing untold hardship on Nigerians for either political or financial gains or both.
He said although pipeline vandalism had held power generation at less than 4,000MW as against currently available capacity of over 5,000MW, government was not deterred from its commitment to provide security for its oil and gas, as well as power infrastructure.
The minister stressed that the nation could now conveniently generate and wheel out over 4,500MW, but for gas supply disruptions through vandalism.
Nebo also appealed to Nigerians to become more vigilant and report suspicious movements and actions to security agencies for effective protection of public infrastructure for the common good of Nigeria.
– The Punch
