By Martin Ayankola, Published: Wednesday, 24 Mar 2010
Stakeholders in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria on Tuesday set a target of supplying 1.4 billion standard cubic feet of gas per day to generate 4,750 megawatts of electricity from thermal plants by December, thereby enabling the achievement of 6,000MW electricity generation from thermal and hydro stations by the end of the year.
At the end of a two-day stakeholders‘ forum on gas to power, organised by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in Lagos, the NNPC, the major oil producing companies and some other oil companies, resolved to work towards achieving their individual domestic gas production target, shared among them for the year.
The target breakdown shows that Shell Petroleum Development Company will contribute 780 million scfd, Chevron Nigeria Limited, 320 million scfd; Nigeria Agip Oil Company, 110 million scfd; Pan Ocean, 110 million scfd; and Total 60 million scfd.
The 6,000MW power generation target was set by the Federal Government for December 2009 but the target could not be met because of inadequate gas supply.
The Presidential Adviser on Petroleum, Dr. Emmanuel Egbogah, told journalists after the conference that the Federal Government would give the stakeholders the needed support to achieve the December target.
Analysts said that the new domestic gas obligation target showed that the oil companies would add an additional 600 million scfd to their current production of 885 million scfd by December.
NNPC’s Group Managing Director, Mr. Mohammed Barkindo, also said after the conference, that a special committee, known as the “War Room,” was to be created to facilitate the achievement of the targets.
Barkindo said that NNPC intended to bring all stakeholders into the ”war room,” while using new management techniques without compromising due process to achieve the target.
He said the forum was not a one off, saying,” In six months‘ time, we are going to reconvene it to take stock of what we have achieved.”
Barkindo said that a process to fast track the gas projects without compromising due process had been agreed upon between the stakeholders and government.
The Federal Government had set a target of 1.2 billion scfd for the oil and gas producers in 2008, but the sector could neither meet the target nor provide enough gas to run the nation‘s thermal power stations.
Barkindo, had in a presentation at the opening ceremony of the event on Monday, given reasons why the oil industry could not achieve the 1.2 billion scfd target agreed between it and government in 2008 and which government provided adequate funds for in the 2008 and 2009 budgets.
According to him, although the industry achieved 885 million standard cubic feet, it fell short of the target beacuse of the security situation in the Niger Delta and operational challenges in the various oil producing companies.
Barkindo said, “The 1.2 billion scfd, domestic gas supply obligation was distributed among Joint Venture companies, including the NNPC and some of the Production Sharing Contracts‘ operators like Pan Ocean. In each of the companies, they had internal challenges. Now, this meeting that we convened will give us the opportunity to jointly review and address these challenges in order to come out with a joint programme of action, that is realistic, flexible and will enable us, not only to achieve the missed target but also to bring forward the projects which are being funded in the 2010 budget.”
Source: http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?theartic=Art20100324385990
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