Nigeria to Boost Domestic Gas Supply by 2013

Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) said that Nigeria is planning to add five billion cubic feet per day (cfd) to local gas supply by 2013.

Nigeria suffers from chronic power scarcities, one of the main brakes to its economic growth. More local gas supply would feed fuel-starved power plants for longer.

Gas supply should increase by 1.2 billion cfd by the end of 2009, facilitating Nigeria to increase power production by 2,800MW in 2009.

Nigeria said that it would invest about $5bn from windfall oil savings to develop the shambolic power sector.

The country has the capacity to produce about 3,000MW but generation often decreases to less than 1,000MW. It aims to double capacity to 6,000MW in 2009.

As part of its gas master plan Nigeria has called foreign oil companies to help construct three big gas gathering plants and pipelines that would offer supplies to the power sector.