Gas Reduction Hinders 1,109MW Electricity Generation
The volume of gas supplied to gas-fired power plants dropped from 820 million standard cubic feet per day in February 2019 to 595mmscfd in September, a development that stalled the generation of 1,109 megawatts of electricity.
Latest data on gas supply to gas-fired power plants obtained from the monthly report of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation showed that the drop in gas supply resulted in a decrease in the power generation.
The NNPC September 2019 report showed that while gas supply to power plants in February, March, April and May was 820mmscfd, 777mmscfd, 728mmscfd and 761mmscfd, power generation figures based on the monthly supply were 3,336MW, 3,223MW, 3,095MW and 2,958MW respectively.
Also, gas supply to the plants for June, July, August and September was 751mmscfd, 730mmscfd, 666mmscfd and 595mmscfd, while power generated from the monthly supply was 2,896MW, 2,864MW, 2,462MW and 2,227MW respectively.
A further analysis showed that while 820mmscfd volume of gas produced 3,336MW of electricity on the national grid in February, this quantum of power dropped to 2,227MW in September, signifying that 1,109MW of power could not be generated.
It was observed that the drop in power generation in September was due to the reduction in gas supply by 225mmscfd to power plants, as gas supply to the plants fell to 595mmscfd in that month.
“A total of 595mmscfd was delivered to gas-fired power plants in the month of September 2019 to generate an average power of about 2,227MW compared with August 2019 where an average of 666mmscfd was supplied to generate 2,462MW,” the corporation stated.
It further noted that out of the 1,074.86mmscfd of gas supplied to the domestic market in September 2019, about 594.56mmscfd of gas, representing 55.32 per cent was supplied to gas-fired power plants, while the balance of 480.30mmscfd or 44.68 per cent was supplied to other industries.
“Similarly, for the period of September 2018 to September 2019, an average of 1,207.86mmscfd of gas was supplied to the domestic market comprising an average of 718.14mmscfd or 59.46 per cent as gas supply to the power plants and 489.72mmscfd or 40.54 per cent as gas supply to industries,” it added.
On national gas production, the oil firm stated that a total of 235.12 billion cubic feet of natural gas was produced in September 2019, translating to an average daily production of 7,837.42mmscfd.
For the period, September 2018 to September 2019, a total of 3,106.8BCF of gas was produced, representing an average daily production of 7,941.69mmscfd.
Period-to-date production from joint ventures, production sharing contracts and the National Petroleum Development Company contributed about 69.43 per cent, 21.14 per cent and 9.43 per cent respectively to the total national gas production.
On national gas offtake, commercialisation and utilisation, the NNPC stated that out of the 235.12BCF of gas supplied in September 2019, a total of 135.63BCF of gas was commercialised, consisting of 32.25BCF and 103.38BCF for the domestic and export market respectively.
“This translates to a total supply of 1,074.86mmscfd of gas to the domestic market and 3,446.02mmscfd of gas supplied to the export market for the month,” it stated.
It added, “This implies that 57.68 per cent of the average daily gas produced was commercialised, while the balance of 42.32 per cent was re-injected, used as upstream fuel gas or flared.”
The corporation stated that gas flare rate was 8.48 per cent for the month under review, representing 664.7mmscfd when compared with average gas flare rate of 8.91 per cent or 706.1mmscfd for the September 2018 to September 2019 period.
