#lightupnigeria Nigeria Loses 1,000mw To Shut Otorogun Gas Plant

#lightupnigeria

Source: business day, By Horatius Egua, October – 21 – 2009

Shell Petroleum  Development  Company (SPDC) and other joint venture partners of the Utorogu Gas Plant have concluded plans to again shut the gas plant for a further upgrade beginning on Wednesday. This is coming as the Geregu power plant in Kogi has resumed operation following the restoration of gas supply to it.

Adebayo Dokunmu, Lokoja business district manager of PHCN, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Tuesday that the Nigerian Gas Company restored gas supply to the 132/33 kVA generating station about three weeks ago. The closure of the plant, which is expected to last for about 10 days would throw the country into temporary darkness as about 1,000 mega watts (mw) of power will be lost on the national grid from the present 2,900mw being distributed across the country.

BusinessDay could however not get official confirmation from SPDC on the status of the work that is going to be done on the gas plant as several efforts made proved abortive. Investigations revealed that SPDC and the joint venture partners want to further upgrade the plant production modules to meet the new 360 million standard cubic feet (scf) capacity from the present 274 million daily in order to guarantee enough gas for the Federal Government’s target of generating 6,000mw of power by December 2009.

It was gathered that SPDC and the NGC are asking Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited, the firm handling the project, to carry out the delicate work within five days due to the strategic importance of the gas plant to the nation’s economy. The company, it was learnt, is insisting on 10 days to enable it do a thorough job on the project considering the delicate and complex nature of the gas plant.

“We are ready to carry out the job in the gas plant because this is not the first time we are working on the plant. We are capable of doing the job and we are ready to move in as soon as we are asked to do so,” a source in the engineering firm said. SPDC had in early August closed the plant following the vandalisation of the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline (ELP). Top Federal Government sources told BusinessDay that the supply of 300 million scf capacity gas plant cited in Ughelli, Delta State, would be cut off to link up some of the vital equipment installed by the operators of the company to increase its production capacity.

Dokunmu said Ayangba, Lokoja and its environs had since been reconnected to the plant.
The Geregu power plant, established under the National Independent Power Project, was among the plants inaugurated by former President Obasanjo shortly before he handed over power in 2007.

Gas supply to the station was cut in April due to heightened activities of militants in the Niger Delta, a development that forced the PHCN to reconnect Lokoja to the national grid.

The district manager, however, said that Idah and Ankpa, both in Kogi, were still receiving electricity supply from Enugu through Nsukka and Otukpo in Benue State.
He said a proposal to upgrade the company’s 30 mVA transmission station at Ajaokuta to 60 mVA has been forwarded to the PHCN headquarters.

With the upgrade, the PHCN would connect the entire Kogi East Senatorial District to the Geregu power plant.
Dokunmu said five contracts have been awarded by the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company to boost power supply to Lokoja and listed the projects to include an upgrade of the 7.5 mVA power transformer at the power house injection substation to 15 mVA.

Others, he said, were the relief of the 7.5 mVA power transformer at the Lokongoma injection substation with another 7.5 mVA, rehabilitation of distribution substations and relief of distribution substations at six locations.
Utorogu provides gas to power Egbin Power Station in Lagos, Ewekoro Power Station in Ogun State and other energy base of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

The plant is operated by SPDC on behalf of the joint venture in which Shell owns 30 percent, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation 55 percent, Total SA 10 percent, and Eni SPA five percent.
Besides domestic gas supplies, Utorogu is the nerve-centre of the ongoing West African Gas Pipeline Project (WAGP), which is expected to become of Nigeria’s major foreign exchange earner.