Yemisi Izuora
As part of efforts to ramp up power supply in the country, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and its Joint Venture Partner, Nigeria Agip Oil Company Limited (NAOC), have pledged their commitment to implement the Okpai Phase 2 Project to shore up the current power generation with 500 megawatts of power.
Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, made the disclosure when he received the new Vice Chairman and Managing Director of NAOC, Fiorillo Lorenzo, in Abuja.
He said that the Okpai Phase 2 Project was being fine-tuned to expeditiously bring it on stream, adding that it would increase power generation by between 10 to 12 per cent.
“That is additional 500mw of power that is coming in, provided the transmission is up and going, then we should be able to boost the current power supply to the country by another 10 to 12 per cent of the current generation”, Dr. Baru noted.
The GMD informed that the project, when completed, would impact significantly on economic activities of the country, stressing that once power was available, there would be a lot of improvement in the standard of living of Nigerians.
Earlier, Lorenzo, said his company had a long-standing partnership with Nigeria and NNPC.
“We want to grow and we want to build and develop new opportunities for the country and support the country in its energy journey. We want to try to change and improve the energy mix of the country and the Okpai Project is a testament of this commitment of our company,’ Lorenzo affirmed.
On his part, the outgoing Vice Chairman of NAOC, Massimo Insulla, said the meeting with the GMD was fruitful with the discussion focusing on the opportunities in the Joint Venture (JV) and the Production Sharing Contract (PSC) and taking advantage of the oil price condition to bring additional value to the investment in the Nigeria.
‘We have been working for 15 years to implement the Okpai Phase 2 Project which is very important to the NNPC/NAOC JV, and we have been able to find a way to achieve our target with this administration”, Insulla averred.