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Prof Bart Nnaji, the Minister of Power, said on Friday that power supply in the country would reach above 9,000mw by December if all challenges confronting gas supply were resolved.
Nnaji made the statement in Abuja at a one-day meeting between the Ministry of Power and Ministry of Petroleum Resources with other stakeholders in the oil and gas sector.
“As you know, the Federal Government has been doing a lot to ensure that we rapidly accelerate power supply situation in the country,’’ he said.
Nnaji said Mr President launched the power roadmap in 2010 and`` as part of that, we are aligning the entire value chain of power production level.
“The critical element in that is that of gas supply.”
He said the “Ministry of Petroleum Resources and Ministry of Power have been working together to ensure that we bridge whatever gap.’’
The minister said the country would collaborate with international oil producers and the producers of gas and transportation to ensure that the gap was filled.
He explained that when all the National Integrated Power Producers would start functioning in December and gas supply was steady to the plants, more electricity would get to consumers.
According to him, many of the independent power producers are ready except gas supply, which is holding them from taking off.
He said as soon as the plants received enough gas supply, they would start power generation.
Earlier Mrs Diezani Allison-Madueke , the Minister of Petroleum Resources, said that the ministry had implemented the new gas policy approved by the president.
She said the new gas plan was articulated in the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) to ensure that reforms happened even before or long before the PIB would become law.
Alison-Madueke said that the implementation of the gas plan was left for the ministry of power to ensure that it was implemented as quickly as possible.
She said the meeting was aimed at aligning with stakeholders in the oil sector in order to achieve sustainable gas supply to power the plants in the next few years.
“We had issues with the short term supply as a number of slippages in terms of gas plant among others; these are occurrences beyond the control of International Oil Companies.
“We want to ensure that we are all brought around the table, international oil companies, the ministries concerned and all other stakeholders , so that we can look at the issues put them on the table and ensure that we come out with a robust solution for meeting the gas supply challenges in the short term,’’ Alison-Madueke said.
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