Nigeria signs gas supply deals

May 28, 2011 | 08:40

(0) user say

Nigeria on Friday signed two gas supply agreements with the state-run electricity company PHCN and other stakeholders to boost power supply.

Nigeria currently produces an average of 3,500 megawatts. South Africa, another continental powerhouse, produces more than 43,000 megawatts of electricity for a population a third the size of Nigeria.

The government wants to use gas reserves to fire new power plants to address its electricity supply problems, with outages daily occurrences in Africa's most populous nation, and to increase liquefied natural gas exports.

"The signing of the gas supply agreements under four different components is envisaged to fast-track President Goodluck Jonathan?s stable electricity supply aspiration," the state-run oil group NNPC said in a statement.

It said "the agreements will ensure that over 70 percent of the total gas needs of the entire power sector are met."

The deals were inked by Nigeria's Petroleum Minister Deziani Alison-Madueke and representatives of oil and gas operators Shell, Chevron, Agip, Total and power firm PHCN.

"This is an incredible achievement and I am so proud that we are in that position now," the minister was quoted as saying.

Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer and its gas reserves officially put at 187 trillion cubic feet have been estimated as the world's eighth-largest.

Much of the natural gas in Nigeria is currently flared -- burned off -- in part because of a lack of infrastructure to process it.

AFP

What the stars mean:

★ Poor ★ ★ Promising ★★★ Good ★★★★ Very good ★★★★★ Exceptional