The suspension of natural gas delivery has been formally communicated to all power generation businesses by wholesale gas producers.
In an interview with Punch, Joy Ogaji, the CEO of the Association of Power Generation Companies, disclosed this information.
Debts from past transactions are the reason for the supply halt.
Citing growing indebtedness as justification, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) reportedly ordered gas producers to stop supplying indebted GenCos.
A nationwide power outage has been caused by this action, severely impairing the nation’s ability to generate electricity.
More than 70% of Nigeria’s electricity is generated by gas-fired power plants. A disagreement between the NMDPRA and gas producers over who should get the 0.5% wholesale price charge required by the Petroleum Industry Act has further complicated matters, even though the government just paid ₦205 billion toward the arrears owing to GenCos.
Gas producers demanded payment of the outstanding obligations as a result of this conflict.
Ogaji claims that the entire debt has increased to ₦2.7 trillion from ₦2 trillion earlier this year. She stated that the problem has been communicated to the pertinent authorities, including the president, and that the required actions are being anticipated.
“NMDPRA is no longer in the position of issuing a directive,” she stated. The gas supply to firms that generate electricity has already been cut off.
“The supply has been stopped by them (gas suppliers).” They have already told our gencos that they will stop providing gas until the due balance is paid, which did not happen today.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission is already aware of the matter, as we have informed them. No one would deny their knowledge; both the presidency and the minister are aware.
“As you are aware, 70% of Thermal Genco’s invoice is for gas, and the overall debt has already risen to almost N2.7 trillion.”
They have been making modest payments. The only way we can live is to compute nine percent of our gas invoice and send it to the gas supplier when they pay us nine percent. The poverty that NBET is causing us is something that we all share.