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By Lillian Okenwa
The Nigerian Gas Tracker revealed that penalties payable for gas flaring from 2020 to January 2024 is $1.2bn. The report noted that the power generation potential of the gas flared was 59.5GWh.
Despite the continual rise in cost of living, inflation, immense hardship, hunger and the increasing protests against untold suffering in Nigeria, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said there is an urgent need for Nigeria to completely phase out electricity subsidy as part of measures to address its economic challenges and the Federal Government appears to agree with them. IMF holds the same view on fuel subsidies.
This is notwithstanding that the IMF kept silent when the British government, last year, paid nearly 40 billion pounds ($50 billion) in energy subsidies; kept mum when the United States’ doubled its subsidies for renewable energy from $7.4 billion in 2016 to $15.6 billion in 2022; and said nothing when the French government announced that it would continue to subsidise electricity bills into 2025.
And although the gas supply crisis in Nigeria has reportedly affected the power sector as the grid remained below 3,500 megawatts despite an installed capacity of 13,000 megawatts, Nigeria has not stopped gas flaring,
The country has continued to suffer losses from its gas, as companies operating in the petroleum industry flared 241.1 million standard cubic feet, MSCF, of gas in the first 11 months (January – November) 2023, according to latest data from the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency, NOSDRA.
While there were about 20 power plants on the grid, the level of generation fluctuated between 3,000MW and 3,500MW as industries and homes face supply challenges in the face of rising tariffs.
This comes as the Nigerian government set up a committee to find a solution to the dwindling electricity generation crisis. The committee is confronted with the inability to pay gas producers $1.3 billion.
The debt and drop in generation are coinciding with the return of subsidies on electricity tariffs, even as an N1.7 trillion shortfall is expected in 2024. Nigeria’s electricity generation has dropped to an average 2,000 megawatts from the previous average of 4,000MW.
The committee, which focuses on an intra-ministerial approach, would bring together the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas) Ekperikpe Ekpo, and the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, to suggest ways and means of achieving sustainable gas supply to power plants.
As of the third quarter of last year, about 20 out of 27 electricity plants on the Nigerian grid were significantly underperforming, with some operating at a mere 0.2 per cent of their installed capacity.
But how is it that Nigeria flares and wastes the gas it desperately needs and at same time owes certain companies for gas supplies? How do you deliberately discard what you need to stay alive and, in another breath, borrow to pay for it? And huge sums of money at that! This is a clear case of economic sabotage.
Today gas-fired power plants in the country are operating far below capacity due to a lack of gas shortages.
A report by the Nigerian Gas Flare Tracker has revealed that Gas valued at $1.9bn was flared in Nigeria between 2020 and 2024. The report stated that during the period under review, 595.1 million standard cubic feet of gas were flared in nine states of the federation.
The states were Rivers, Delta, Imo, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Anambra, Abia and Lagos. Curiously. gas flaring continues to trend in Nigeria, despite cries of gas scarcity by electricity-generating companies.
The Nigerian Gas Tracker said 31.6 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions were recorded from 2020 to January 2024. It said that penalties payable for gas flaring in the period was $1.2bn, though the names of companies flaring gas were not listed.
The report noted that the power generation potential of the gas flared was 59.5GWh. Regrettably, after 63 years of independence, Nigeria’s power generation capacity today stands at about 3,500 megawatts.
In their article The Electricity Act 2023 as a catalyst for the development and utilization of renewable electricity in Nigeria, Lynda Ugochinyere Ezike and Ngozi Chinwa Ole posited that: “Renewable energy plays a pivotal role in the crucial reduction of GHG (Greenhouse gases) emissions, the vital provision of energy security and the curtailment of the reliance on depleting sources of energy – such as fossil fuels. Nigeria is blessed with an infinite amount of renewable energy sources that when properly exploited, could put an end to the protracted lack of uninterrupted electricity supply challenges that have plagued the Nation for years.
“The Electricity Act 2023 depicts that Nigeria, although a developing nation with poor access to electricity facilities can, notwithstanding, leverage on its ownership of renewable energy sources to curb its energy insecurity and environmental challenges. Nigeria’s astounding wealth of renewable energy sources in conjunction with the appropriate execution of the provisions of the Electricity Act is the providential answer to Nigeria’s electricity supply and climate change problems.”
Why then are renewable energy options not being explored in Nigeria?
The repeal and re-enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 (the ESPRA) also known as the Electricity Act 2023 (the Act) was seen as a major game changer in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
This is because amongst the comprehensive legal and institutional framework introduced by the Act, is that states now have constitutional authority to enact laws that allow them to generate, distribute, and transport electricity within its boundaries, including territories formerly covered only by the national grid.
President Bola Tinubu at the time announced that the constitutional amendment permits Nigeria’s 36 states to generate electricity. ‘‘That’s devolution of power and that should be our contribution to the developmental projects you are looking for and we will continue in ways that will help our people,’’ he said.
For decades France exploited uranium in Niger to power its country and add value to its citizens. Nigeria also has uranium, coal, assorted minerals, abundant sunlight, wind and more that could be used to generate power. Why are the citizens suffering?
