The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Maikanti Baru, has ordered the immediate assessment of fire incident on Escravos to Lagos Pipeline, (ELP).
The NNPC spokesperson, Ndu Ughamadu, noted that the affected pipeline was a natural gas line which supplied the commodity from Escravos region of the Niger Delta area to Lagos.
According to him, gas supply to some states will be affected as a result of the inferno. “The pipeline also supplies gas to power plants in the South-West, in addition to feeding the West Africa Gas Pipeline System. The incineration of the ELP which was built in 1989 was suspected to have been caused by bush fire on January 2, at Abakila in Ondo State.”
“NNPC firemen were drafted to the scene and were able to contain the fire from the leak point of the pipeline incident. However, the fire could not be extinguished due to the high pressure of the line.”
“It will cause subsequent shutdown of the following power plants with a combined generating capacity of 1,143MW: Egbin, Lagos, Olorunsogo, PEL Olorunshogo, Ogun, Paras Power Plant, Ogun and Omotosho plant, Ondo State”.
The fire incident on the ELP led to the shutdown of pipeline supplying gas to Egbin 1,320MW, Olorunsogo NIPP 676MW, Olorunsogo 338MW, Omotosho NIPP 450MW, Omotosho 338MW, Paras 60MW power stations.
The interruption in gas supply from these gas stations caused the National Transmission Grid to trip off around 20:20 on 2nd of January 2018 which resulted in a nationwide blackout.
Most of Nigeria’s power generation is from thermal power stations that require gas for fuel. The gas is produced by the oil and gas companies overseen by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources. The gas is delivered to the power stations through the pipelines owned and operated by the Nigerian Gas Processing and Transportation Company (NGPTC) a subsidiary of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).