Taiwo Popoola
There seems to be some Imbroglio over the cause of Wednesday’s national grid collapse which plunged Nigeria into darkness.
This is as generation companies blamed the latest collapse on the stoppage of gas supply due to over N2 trillion in legacy debts.
However, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) denied issuing a directive to wholesale gas suppliers to halt gas supply to Generation Companies, GenCos, over the N2 trillion indebtedness.
NMDPRA made this clarification to Urban Express News Online on Wednesday in a statement.
Report had emerged of an imminent blackout in Nigeria as NMDPRA directed gas suppliers to halt supply to GenCos over failure to pay their obligations.
Thereafter, on Wednesday, Urban Express News Online reported that Nigeria was thrown into darkness, making it the 12th National Collapse in 2024 alone. The Outage occurred Around 1: 36 p.m. on Wednesday, according to the Jos Electricity Distribution Company. However, NMDPRA had absolved itself of ng responsible for the blackout.
“It has no bearing on the information shared at a recent stakeholders’ engagement held in Lagos between the Authority, the OPTS, IPPG, and other stakeholders in the oil and gas industry.
“The purpose of the engagement was to sensitise stakeholders on the requirements, opportunities, and benefits associated with the implementation of the wholesale supply license as provided by sections 142 and 197 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
“It was a follow-up to an earlier stakeholder engagement held at the NMDPRA corporate headquarters in Abuja on November 27, 2024.
“The Authority wishes to reassure all our stakeholders and indeed the general public that at no time was the false statement made at that event and anywhere else, and they are advised to completely disregard the publication as every effort is being made to ensure that the supply and distribution of natural gas and petroleum products to end users is seamless and unabated as we head into the festive season and indeed all through the coming year 2025,” NMDPRA said.
Meanwhile, Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies, Dr. Joy Ogaji, confirmed that gas suppliers had halted supply to GenCos.
She explained that the development comes after gas-producing companies formally notified all GenCos of the suspension of natural gas supply.
According to her, it was behind Wednesday’s power outage as 70 percent of Nigeria’s power is produced by gas-fired power plants.
“They (gas suppliers) have halted the supply.
“The total debt has now increased to over N2.7tn, and you know that 70 percent of thermal Gencos invoices are gas,” she stated.
As of the time of filing this report, the Transmission Company of Nigeria, responsible for the country’s national grid, has remained mum on the latest power outage.
