Oil & Gas
PROTON Energy has reached a major milestone in the development of its 500 MW Proton Delta Sunrise project with the signing of a long-term Gas Supply Aggregation Agreement. The plant will be built in two phases with the first phase delivering 150 MW of electricity to the national grid, whilst the second phase will add a further 350 MW and expand the plant’s capacity to 500 MW. It is expected that the first phase will reach commercial operations in 2025, delivering much-needed reliable incremental power megawatts to the national grid.
The gas supply agreement, which was reached earlier, was commemorated in Abuja on April 27. The agreement is between Proton Energy Limited, Proton, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd., NNPC,
The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited, SPDC, TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited, Total, Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited, NAOC, and Gas Aggregation Company Nigeria Limited, GACN, for the supply of natural gas for the 150 MW first phase of the project.
Nigeria currently scores low on major indices tracking the supply of reliable electricity to its population and the agreement is in line with the government’s twin objectives of accelerating the
development of a robust electricity sector and better utilizing its gas endowment for the betterment of its citizen. The successful implementation of the project, combined with other electricity value chain initiatives that are currently underway, will help to lay the foundations, in the medium term, for an era characterised by the supply of reliable and affordable electricity to the general populace. It is expected that this will dramatically improve standards of living, catalyse economic growth and help transition Nigeria into an upper-middle-income economy.
Commenting on the key milestone Oti Ikomi, executive vice-chairman, Proton, noted that: “Proton Energy is an advanced IPP project which, with the continued support of key regulatory and financial sector stakeholders, has the potential to reach Financial Close by the end of 2023. We thank our partners for their dedication towards executing this agreement and their contributions towards the development of a more robust domestic electricity market.”
Ikomi added: “Proton Energy supports the further integration of renewable sources of energy onto the National Grid. The project has been designed to minimize its environmental footprint whilst better utilizing available domestic gas supplies which in many cases is flared. The project will be one of the first projects in Nigeria to utilize a more efficient Combined Cycle Gas
Turbine configuration (CCGT) and will incorporate cutting-edge carbon reduction technologies.
This will enable the project to reduce its carbon footprint and meet the most stringent emissions standards for a gas to power projects. The project additionally allows for a future option to incorporate the use of hydrogen as feedstock in the future. Critically and in the context of national climate pledges the project will enable the country to further deepen and accelerate the incorporation of intermittent renewable projects into the national grid through the supply of reliable base load power”.
Proton Energy remains committed to the Nigerian power sector and believes that a vibrant Nigerian power sector will play a pivotal role in the country’s future economic development and will help unlock improved medium to long- term economic prospects. In light of ongoing
sectoral reforms, significant improvements are expected to be made in the near term that will contribute towards the long- term viability of the sector which in turn will enable the country to significantly boost its medium term growth prospects.
Ike Osakwe. chairman of Proton Energy, added: “The Board of Proton Energy commends the Management of Proton Energy for diligently progressing the project over a number of years. We re-echo our gratitude to our gas supply partners Shell SPDC, NNPC, GACN, Total Energies and AGIP. It is good to see the project reach near ‘shovel ready’ status and we expect that on the back of this achievement, the project will be able to reach an early financial close and start to deliver a much needed reliable supply of power megawatts to the national grid. We would like to take this opportunity to also acknowledge the critical support of our key development partners including Siemens, CMEC Fieldstone & AIIM’.
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Tags: NAOC Nigerian Agip Oil Company Limited Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. Proton Energy SPDC Total TotalEnergies EP Nigeria Limited
