ABUJA – The Federal Government has earmarked $1 billion (or N155 billion) to address the challenges of gas supply to its power plants to boost electricity supply nationwide.
Mr James Olotu, the Managing Director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), said this when he briefed State House correspondents after a meeting of the board of NDPHC in Presidential Villa, Abuja on Monday.
He said that the funds were approved by the board of NDPHC on Friday to develop some fallow wells to ensure gas availability to address critical issues pertaining to the stranded power in the energy sector.
“The board of the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, therefore, met on Friday, last week, and looked at additional strategies by which government again can move the sector forward.
“One of such strategies is to commit some funds out of the expectations from the sale of power plants towards partnering with the private sector again in developing some fallow wells identified in certain parts of this country where there have been proved gas availability. [eap_ad_1] “This programme promises to unlock gas from these locations within a short time and then supplement efforts currently being done by the petroleum ministry to ensure that we close the gap between gas requirement and gas availability.
“The sum of $1 billion out of the funds of NDPHC is being put on the ground to support these initiatives.“
According to him, NDPHC will partner the relevant government ministries, particularly the Ministry of Petroleum, and the private sector to ensure the success of the gas project.
He, therefore, expressed the hope that when completed the gas project would address the shortfall in gas supply to power plants in the country.
“The petroleum ministry is agreeable to this and is supporting the entire programme; the ministries of power and finance are also in the picture.
“And so we hope that gas supply challenges will become a thing of the past very soon; maybe then we can begin to have more megawatts.“
Olotu said that President Goodluck Jonathan and his team had been working assiduously to come up with strategies to improve power supply in the country by building massive infrastructure for generation, transmission, and distribution. (NAN)
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