Nigeria LNG Plans for 2014

Fri, Jan 17, 2014

By publisher

6 MIN READ

–

AS part of its renewed efforts to maintain its market share of the global supply of Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, to the international market, the Nigeria LNG limited targets to export 325 cargoes of LNG to European and Asian customers in 2014. Emmanuel Nnabuife, head of gas supply, NLNG Limited, at a recent celebration of the loading and casting off of the 3,000th LNG cargo from the Bonny Island plant in Rivers State, said: “In 2013, we started with a plan to do 325 cargoes. But we ended up with 280 cargoes because of the challenges we had with some of our external stakeholders, one of them, as you know, is the NIMASA issue we had in June, which led to the loss of about 25 cargoes off our production plan.

“Also, we suffered gas supply constraints because of the challenges we have in the Niger Delta today. People go in and drill into the pipelines and what that creates is that we have to shut down to repair the lines. For any of those interventions, production suffers. But by and large, we closed the year with 280 cargoes, which is about 45 cargoes below the target, hoping that this year, we will do close to 325,” he said.

Nnabuife said the company sets a target for itself every year based on best practices around the world to track how it performs and to ensure continuous improvement. He noted that in 2012, the company performed very well relative to its targets. The company started a process of securing additional six new ships to replace old ones as part of the company’s asset rejuvenation programme to secure its long-term contracts. “All these are geared towards ensuring that we continuously sustain and control our share in the market.”

No Gas to Generate Electricity

AS the federal government celebrates the completion of new power generating plants under the National Integrated Power Projects, NIPPs, and the recent privatisation of the assets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, which are all expected to improve power supply, generation has continued to drop due to inadequate gas supply to fire the gas-powered plants.

Generation, which exceeded 4,500MW in December 2013, has fallen below 3,500MW in recent days as gas supply remains inadequate to fire the turbines. Although the generating stations are ready to add available capacity of more than 6,100MW to the national grid, gas supply can barely sustain 3,500MW.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, confirmed the gas supply challenges, stating that the power plants worst affected were those receiving gas supply from the Escravos-Warri-Lagos Gas Pipeline System, which has been the target of vandals and protesting communities. It said the operation of the pipeline and the Escravos tank farm, as well as the Abiteye flow station has been targeted several times by the Gbaramatu and Ugborode communities in Warri South-west Local Government Area of Delta State, which have been agitating for a better deal from both NNPC and Chevron Nigeria Limited.

According to him, the newly completed first phase of the Escravos-Warri-Lagos pipeline, which was destroyed in 2013, is still undergoing a test run, adding that unless this is completed, gas supply to the line would remain inadequate. The Warri-Escravos gas pipeline was hit with dynamite by vandals in at least 20 different spots. Some of the affected power plants worst hit by shortage of gas supply include the 434MW Geregu 1 Power Station in Kogi State, which generates less than half of installed capacity and the Geregu NIPP plant, which operates at the same installed capacity but has no gas to fire the turbines.

Others include Delta Power Station, Sapele NIPP, Olorunsogo I and II in Ogun State, and Omotosho I and II in Ondo State. It was also gathered that the 1,320MW Egbin power station in Lagos, as well as the nearby 230MW AES plant, which usually add more than 1,000MW to the national grid when gas is available were generating only an estimated 700MW.

Some of the chief executive officers of the recently privatised power stations said that there was shortage of gas to fire the turbines. “Gas is not enough to take the load. That is the summary of the problem. The gas being produced is not enough to ride all the machines available,” said one of them.

Electricity Workers Suspend Protest

THE workers of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, and its successor companies on Tuesday, January 14, shelved its planned nationwide strike temporarily for two weeks. The officials of the Senior Staff Association of Electricity and Allied Companies and the National Union of Electricity Employees, representing the workers and the representatives of the federal government held a meeting to address the non-payment of the workers’ severance packages and its pension contributions.

Bede Opara, president-general, SSAEAC, said that the unions decided to shelve the strike after reaching a compromise with the federal government at the meeting. “I’m sure you have heard that the strike has been suspended for the next two weeks. We had a meeting with the government on Monday that ended this morning, Tuesday,” he said. Although Opara did not disclose the identities of the government officials that were present at the meeting, it was learnt that senior officials of key ministries involved in the negotiation process were represented.

An official of the NUEE stated that the nationwide protest by the workers on Monday necessitated the urgency of the meeting, which was summoned by the federal government. The official, who pleaded anonymity said, “Our massive protests yesterday (Monday) forced them to call the meeting. People should know that we are not demanding what is not rightly ours; what we are asking for is the federal government to pay us once and for all so as to stop all these protests.”

Employees of the defunct PHCN and its successor companies had staged spontaneous rallies in different parts of the country on Monday to protest against the delay in the payment of their severance packages. The rallies were held in Lagos, Abuja, Jebba, Ibadan and Bauchi, among others.

Compiled by Anayo Ezugwu

— Jan. 27, 2014 @ 01:00 GMT