www.antslittlethoughts..com

Federal Government's efforts to boost power generation and enhance electricity supply to Nigerians will soon get a lift, as it is set to sign another Gas Supply Purchase Agreement, GPSA, with Addax Petroleum Development Corporation, Vanguard has gathered. Ministry of Petroleum sources revealed that the GSPA would soon be signed with Addax for the supply of 100million standard cubic feet of gas per day for the firing of one the power plants under the National Integrated Power Plant, NIPP.

The gas is meant to fast track the completion and powering of the LOT3 Project Adanga-Calabar Gas Transmission Pipeline and now to be made available by 2011 contrary to the earlier scheduled June 2012. The GPSA will be the second of such agreements to be signed by government with power producers, the first being with Pan Ocean Oil and Gas Ltd, which was signed in May.

EPC contractor Confirming the Addax deal, the Engineering Procurement Contractor, EPC, Kaztec Engineering Ltd, an indigenous oil service firm said the move will fast track the completion of the 24-inch 107km Gas Transmission Pipeline and Metering Station valued at over $158m being built for the Adanga Power Plant awarded to Marubeni Engineering (W.A) Ltd.


Speaking on the GPSA, the Executive Director, Kaztec, Mr Adebanji Babarinde, commended President Goodluck Jonathan and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, for the success recorded with the initiative, saying that "it has successfully sorted out the issue of gas pricing and gas supply to enhance generation and distribution of electricity in the country."

Conducting journalists on a tour of the metering station now over 83 percent completed in Calabar, Cross River State, Kaztec's Project Manager, Mr Joseph Egona, said, "To this end, we shall commence Offshore Pipeline Construction works by end of September 2010 in order to make the best use of the dry season window from October 2010 to February 2011 as earlier planned by us in our schedule." He further disclosed, "KAZTEC has also been awarded a contract by Addax for the TB-1921 Installation works which include the Adanga Gas Platform where the offshore pipeline would hook up."

Egona also said that, KAZTEC has acquired a Pipe Lay/Construction Barge for the offshore installation to boost technical capacity; in line with its bid to become the company of choice in EPC services in the country.

"The Pipe Lay Barge would be utilized for the construction of the offshore pipeline segment. Efforts would now be geared towards fast tracking the installation of the sensitive works related to the delivery of the gas for the LOT3 project," he said.

Furthermore, he said the project also involves the construction of a 45km offshore pipeline.

Earlier, Mr Babarinde had listed the challenges facing the timely completion of the power plant to include "payment of compensation to host communities and getting payments for the work done; getting the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Ministry of Finance to issue Letters of Credit for the execution of the projects as at when due, as well as the adverse inflation often resulting to variations and avoidable and unnecessary delays over approval for these variations."

Also speaking on the challenges of the Gas pipeline, Mr Egona said the 510-mega watt, MW, power plant required about 140MMSCF/d of gas and the company is currently negotiating with an indigenous gas firm for the supply of the balance of 40MMSCF/d.

He noted that the gas pipeline has the capacity of 200MMSCF/d to accommodate future expansion. The civil engineer for the gas pipeline project, Mr Akenzua Agarose, noted that the original scope of work was expanded because 70 percent of the land is swampy while only 30 percent is normal land, as such Kaztec had to invest millions of naira in piling the site to the required level in preparation for the installation of the Metering Station.