The On-going gas projects that would enhance power supply in the country are to henceforth get priority attention from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as it has expressed its determination to complete all of the projects aimed at linking gas-to-power and gas-to-industries to boost the national economy.
The NNPC disclosed this while receiving the visiting the Senate Committee on Gas which was on an oversight visit to the NNPC Towers in Abuja.
Farouk Said,group general manager, Gas Infrastructure Development, noted that the NNPC is currently undertaking six (6) priority gas projects that would reposition the country for profitability.
He explained that the current gas infrastructure projects being executed are in tandem with the Gas Master Plan which was approved by the last federal executive council adding that the plan would have a spin off effect on the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the country.
“In line with the mandate of GID, we are currently executing six critical gas infrastructure projects. Four of them are pipeline projects; the others are the Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP) and the Western and Central Processing Plants”, Said informed.
He stated that the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System II (ELPS) is a 36 inch diameter and 342 kilometer pipeline which traverses Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos States stressing that the project is expected to be commissioned in the second quarter of this year.
He noted that when completed, the ELPS II would double the capacity of the existing ELPS which currently supplies 1.1 trillion standard cubic feet of gas per day noting that the pipeline would serve as a back bone of power supply as most of the power plants are located along the ELPS axis.
On the Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP), he noted that “we have completed concept master plan; we have also done ground breaking ceremony. We have cleared 535 hectares of the land out of the 585 hectares earmarked for GRIP. Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) has also appointed a developer and an alignment meeting has been scheduled for the end of February 2016 where all the stakeholders would get together including the investors to factor the way forward for the project.”
Earlier, Maikanti Baru, the group executive director, Exploration and Production, said the gas infrastructural projects when completed would boost power supply, generate employment and provide a veritable platform for export of petrochemical products from Nigeria.
Bassey Albert Akpan, Chairman of the Senate Committee, in his remarks, said the visit was an eye opener assuring that the Senate is prepared to support strategic efforts of the NNPC to industrialize Nigeria.
“We encourage the management of NNPC to remain focused on the critical gas infrastructure, the continued display of transparency and accountability in its business module implementation,” Sen. Akpan noted.
Olusola Bello
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