Prepare for more power outage, Avengers warn Nigerians

With the loss of about 600 megawatts (from about 3.5Mws) of electricity in Nigeria, following Tuesday’s attack on Chevron’s gas line by a militant group, the Nigeria Delta Avengers operating in the oil rich Niger Delta, some parts of the country may suffer longer days in darkness.

Besides, the militants have vowed to continue with such attacks until they put a stop to oil exploration by IOCs in the region.

All appeal to the avengers to embrace dialogue seem to have failed as they insisted on their demands being met before any meaningful meeting could be recognized, adding that they would strike again if this condition was not met.

A senior official of one of the power generation firms in Delta State confirmed that two plants had been shut down due to lack of gas and other factors, which he refused to name.

“We usually get gas supply from E1 lines from the Escravos gas plant, which was recently, attacked resulting in grounding our operations.

“Besides, for fear of further attacks, we have shut down completely and do not have any date for resumption as there are still fresh threats from the militants,” he said

However, NNPC officials expressed optimism that the ongoing peace efforts could turn out positively, so that repair works on the damaged facilities should commence and for continuous export of crude through the terminal.

“There is still hope that normal activities at the terminals will be back soon and that will lead to gas plants shut down for the improvement of power supply too,” the official stated.

The latest attack by the militant group was unexpectedly carried out despite the last minute arrangements by the Presidency to meet with stakeholders and the elders from the region.

Nigeria’s 2.2 million barrel of crude per day export has been reduced to about 1.6 million due to similar attacks on oil facilities.

By Emma Eke….

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