Nigerian news:Nigerian gov't to fast track gas supply

The Nigerian government has pledged to fast track the supply of gas to the power sector as a means of ending the epileptic power situation in the country.

Minister of Petroleum Resources Diezani Alison-Madueke said this in Abuja on Friday at the signing of gas supply agreement between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), and some International Oil Companies (IOC).

The companies are Shell Petroleum Development Company, Agip Nig. Ltd, Total Nig. Ltd and Chevron Nig. Ltd.

"The significance of today is in the fact that we are executing gas supply agreements between the top two gas supply joint ventures in Nigeria, namely the NNPC/SPDC and NNPC/CNL JVs," Alison-Madueke said.

She said the agreements would help in supplying about 70 percent of the total power sector gas requirement to the power plants in the country.

"Having fully negotiated the terms between these two JVs and an anchor power plant in Egbin, we are now in a position where we can very rapidly replicate these agreements across all other power plants," the minister said.

She described the partnership and signing of agreements as timely, saying that the power sector was the largest domestic consumer of gas.

Alison-Madueke told her audience that the ministry had concluded plans for the take off of the gas supply agreement for a fertilizer project.

Earlier, the Minister of State for Power, Nuhu Wya, described the agreements as a milestone in achieving the power road map.

Wya assured the IOCs of government's readiness to implement the agreements to the letter and ensure international best practices in the implementation of the project.

He said the agreements would enable the country to generate more electricity to power the economy.

On his part, Austen Oniwon, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, said they would lead to the unlocking of the country's huge gas market.

He said the NNPC would ensure adequate funding and development of gas for supply to the power sector.

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