For Nigerians to enjoy constant electricity supply, there is the need for more investments in the sector that will culminate in the country being able to generate 200,000 MegaWatts (MW).

This means Nigeria needs additional 195,400 megawatts to meet its electricity needs, because it generates an average of 4,600MW for a population of 200 million.

Group Managing Director, Mojec International Limited, Chantelle Abdul, disclosed this at the yearly international conference of the Association of Energy Correspondents of  Nigeria (NAEC) in Lagos.

She  said  low energy generation was responsible for frequent blackouts in the country.

“Based on international standards of 1 GW (1000MW) to one million people, the country is expected to, at least, generate 200GW (200,000MW) to give the population better access to electricity.

“Nigeria has the capacity to generate 12.5GW (12,000MW) of electricity, but owing to different reasons, the 29 generation companies (GenCos) are only able to generate, transmit and distribute between 3GW to 5GW (3,000MW to 5,000MW)”, Abdul said.

She said Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, faces surging electricity demand owing to rapid urbanisation and industrialisation.

According to her, before 2023, there were 26 gas-powered plants and three hydro plants, but the approval of 11 new GenCos in the year had taken the electricity generating plants to 40, with the country’s transmission wheeling capacity standing at about 8.1 GW (8,100MW).

 She expressed hope that the new Electricity Act would pave way for more investment into the sector to allow states to generate, transmit and distribute their electricity.

Egbin has the highest capacity as a gas plant to produce 1.39GW (1,390MW), and Kainji Jebba Power Plc has the highest capacity as a Hydro plant to produce 1.33GW (1, 330MW).

Abdul said solar plants could be introduced to the state governments to serve as a means to generate electricity for their various regions.

In a related development, Nigeria will need about $25 billion of yearly investment in the next 10 years to achieve crude oil output of 4 million barrels per day and 3 billion cubic feet per day of domestic gas production, Executive Chairman, AA Holdings, Austin Avuru, has said at the conference.

Speaking on the theme, “Nigeria’s Energy Transition: Enhancing investment opportunities & addressing challenges in the energy sector”, Avuru said Nigeria should focus more on energy security and optimise the value of its oil and gas resources before committing to its energy transition agenda.

He explained the energy transition agenda is a lot more serious than an issue that has to do with carbon emissions in the country, adding that carbon emissions reduction has been the key factor that all the energy transition argument has been hinged on.

Most countries have focused on addressing energy security and optimising the available resources while driving the transition.

 The Executive Chairman said every country would address these two things before coming to what some people think is the residual matter of reduction of carbon emission.

He underlined the need Nigeria should prioritise energy security for both now and in the future and optimise the value of the numerous energy resources that it has today, while still pushing the energy transition agenda.

Avuru said if the government must prioritise the energy transition agenda, it should have raised the country’s crude oil production to about three to four million barrels per day presently; then, reduce production to one million barrels daily by 2040.

He believed the country should have achieved domestic gas production of four billion cubic feet per day between now and 2030.

To curb the incessant oil theft in the country, the Nigerian Upstream Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has introduced the Advanced Cargo Declaration regime in upstream petroleum operations to arrest oil robbery and curtail export of stolen crude oil.

The commission also stated its plans to reactivate shut-in wells as part of initiatives to increase oil and gas production in the country.

The Commission Chief Executive, Gbenga Komolafe said this intervention at the conference, represented by Abel Nsa, Head of the National Oil and Gas Excellence Centre (NOGEC) Department, NUPRC, said the initiative aims at ensuring that crude oil and gas cargoes exported from Nigeria have a unique identifier that confirms all documentation as regards the exported consignment.

‘‘This implies that any cargo without the unique identifier becomes tagged as illegitimate. This, by no small measure, enhances transparency in our export operations”, he stated.

He said NUPRC had deployed key resources to the Special Investigative Unit of the Commission to forestall any cases of sharp practices by operators in the sector.

‘‘Over the next few months, we are positive that we shall record a marked increase in our national oil and gas production volumes.

“Quick-win strategies such as our aggressive drive to reactivate shut-in and declining wells will boost production prior to the onset of more long-term initiatives like operations from the new marginal field awardees.

“Also, the Commission is working alongside security operatives to bring a halt to the menace of crude oil theft, which has over the years contributed to a huge loss of production”, he said.

The Commission Chief Executive added that the agency had begun the implementation of the Drill or Drop Provision with a comprehensive review of assets which had been undeveloped by operators.

Such assets, he said, would be placed in a basket and then offered to willing and qualified investors with the capacity to explore, develop and produce the block(s) or field(s) in a timely, efficient, safe, and environmentally friendly manner.

He stated that the ongoing mini bid round for seven Deep Offshore Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) would boost the nation’s reserves as well as bring about anticipated benefits to the nation and other stakeholders.

On reduction in unit cost per barrel and revenue, he explained that the Commission is committed to ensuring a significant reduction in the cost of doing business in the upstream petroleum industry.

‘‘Following an in-depth comparative analysis between the Unit Operating Cost (UOC) in Nigeria and those obtainable in other climes

“We have commenced the development of cost studies and benchmarks to ensure an improvement in the cost efficiency of our upstream petroleum operations, in accordance with Section 8 of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021.

The NUPRC has also begun a review of all Crude Handling Agreements (CHA) with a view to entrenching openness and competitiveness, thereby reducing the cost of production while increasing government revenue from the sector. It is noteworthy that in the year 2022, using the strategies listed above, the Commission outperformed its revenue collection target by 18.3 per cent’’, he explained

Komolafe maintained that the Commission had stepped up efforts toward transparency in the sector and that transparency in hydrocarbon accounting was essential in ensuring maximum value derivation by the government and stakeholders.

According to him, transparency is essential to ensuring security of investments made by our financial partners.