Kenya Power has been trending for the past 48 hours with the majority of Kenyans taking to their social media platforms to lament the power outage that had caused blackout in some parts of the country. The power outage comes days after the Ministry of Energy confirmed a 15 per cent reduction in electricity cost in order to cushion Kenyans from the high cost of living. This was also to fulfill a pledge by President Uhuru Kenyatta. The Ministry noted that the reduction of power cost took effect on January 1, 2022, and would run till December 2022. “The Ministry of Energy hereby confirms that the Kenya Gazette of January 7, has effected a 15 per cent reduction in power tariffs. The reduction will boost livelihoods and economic growth by reducing the cost of living,” read part of the Ministry’s statement. Source: https://energynewsafrica.comManaging Director and CEO (Ag.), Eng. Rosemary Oduor accompanied by Security Manager, Mj. (Rtd.) Geoffrey Kigen and General Manager (Ag.), Infrastructure Development, Eng. Raphael Ndolo inspecting a section of the collapsed high voltage transmission line earlier today. pic.twitter.com/ozYdrCBuAF
— The Kenya Power & Lighting Company Plc. (@KenyaPower) January 11, 2022
Kenya Suffers Nationwide Outage As Transmission Tower Collapses
Kenya has been hit with a nationwide power outage after a high voltage transmission line connecting the capital collapsed.
The country’s power utility company, Kenya Power, announced on Tuesday that the blackout occurred after towers supporting a high voltage power line connecting the capital to the Kiambere hydroelectric dam collapsed.
“We have lost power supply due to collapsed towers on Kiambere – Embakasi high voltage transmission power line at 10:45 a.m.(0745 GMT) this morning,” Kenya Power said in a statement on its Twitter account.
“Our engineers are working to restore electricity supply as the repairs are being undertaken.”
The Corporate Communications Officer at Kenya Power, Immaculate Kubai, told Kenyans.co.ke,that the issue had affected major parts of the country but affirmed that it would be resolved soon.
“Yes, a transmission power line has collapsed around Embakasi but it is being worked on. It’s a national blackout, so when the main line collapses most of the time it affects the supply, hence, they are trying to stabilise the grid before they embark on supplying to the country,” she noted.
Morocco: Chariot Makes Significant Gas Discovery Off Morocco
Oil and gas company Chariot has made, what the company described as, a significant gas discovery at the Anchois-2 well located on the Lixus license off Morocco.
Chariot has a 75 percent interest and operatorship of Lixus in partnership with the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines which holds the remaining 25 percent.
The company said that the Anchois-2 well was safely and efficiently drilled to a total measured depth of 8,240 feet by the Stena Don drilling rig in 1,250 feet of water.
A comprehensive evaluation of the well was done through wireline logging, including petrophysical evaluation, subsurface formation testing including reservoir pressures and gas sampling, sidewall cores, and wellbore seismic profiles.
Preliminary interpretation of the data confirms the presence of significant gas accumulations in the appraisal and exploration objectives of the Anchois-2 well with a calculated net gas pay totaling more than 330 feet, compared to 180 feet in the original Anchois-1 discovery.
The appraisal target – Gas Sand B – has a calculated total net gas pay of more than 165 feet in two stacked reservoirs of similar thickness. The upper reservoir is a continuation of a reservoir drilled in the original discovery well, Anchois-1, with the lower reservoir being newly identified.
As for exploration targets – Gas Sands C, M, and O – were successfully encountered with multiple gas-bearing intervals across a gross interval of 820 feet measured distance with no water-bearing reservoirs identified, materially exceeding pre-drill expectations.
The previously discovered Gas Sand A was not targeted in the Anchois-2 well, due to the intention of evaluating it in the subsequent Anchois-1 re-entry operations. However, Anchois-2 encountered gas-bearing sands at this level providing important additional subsurface data. According to Chariot, high-quality reservoirs were encountered in all gas sands.
Further analysis will be undertaken to fully understand the positive implications on gas resources within the expanded Anchois field and the scale of the potential gas development. De-risking of numerous additional material exploration prospects within the Lixus license area with similar seismic attributes to the Anchois discovery is now considered to be low risk.
Chariot said that the well would be suspended for potential future re-entry and completion as a production well in the development of the field.
The Stena Don rig will then move to the Anchois-1 gas discovery well to perform re-entry operations with the objectives of assessing the integrity of the previously drilled well, and if successful, providing a future potential production well for the development of the field.
“I am delighted to announce that Chariot, as well as conducting a successful appraisal well operation, has made a significant gas discovery at the Anchois-2 well which materially exceeds our expectations. We continue to conduct further analysis on the data collected from the well, but as it stands, we believe the result is transformational for the company,” Adonis Pouroulis, Acting CEO of Chariot, said.
“This is a tremendous outcome[…]. With the recently announced key terms of gas offtake with a prominent international energy group, interest from two highly regarded institutional lenders to provide debt finance, an ongoing collaboration with a leading constructor of offshore gas projects, and now this successful gas well result, the Anchois project is getting closer to helping provide a clean transitional fuel to support Morocco’s industrial and economic growth,” he added.
Ghana: BOST To Build LPG Tanks Across Its Depots-MD
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria: Scrap Toothless NERC-Group To Buhari
A group calling itself All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum is pushing for the scrapping of Nigeria’s Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The group’s call follows the displeasure expressed by President Muhammadu Buhari about the performance of the power sector in the West African nation.
Last week, President Buhari expressed his unsatisfactory state of electricity supply in Nigeria.
And that, to the group, is an indictment on the country’s electricity regulator and, therefore, advised the President to take a bold step to scrap it for failing Nigerians.
“Our advice to the President is to scrap NERC for not living up to its responsibilities of regulating the industry,” National Coordinator of All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum, Adeola Samuel-Lori said during an interview with News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
He suggested to the President to move the responsibilities of NERC to the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC).
“The government should put the sector under the supervision of the FCCPC which has, in recent times, showed that it has what is required to protect the interest of Nigerians.
“If we have a regulator that cannot only bark but can bite, all the stakeholders in the electricity value-chain, especially the DisCos, will sit up.”
Samuel-Ilori noted that the DisCos had for several years ignored NERC’s directives without sanctions, which had encouraged impunity in the sector.
He said, for instance, NERC’s order on capping of Estimated Billing was not obeyed by some DisCos, thus compelling the All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum to institute a suit against NERC and the DisCos before an Ikeja High Court.
According to him, the Meter Assets Providers scheme also stipulates a 10-day period for customers to be metered after making payment but some of the Discos are not adhering to the directive.
Samuel-Ilori decried the slow pace of metering of electricity customers across the country, adding that Nigerians should be allowed to procure their meters directly from any source by the DisCos.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria: AEDC, NAPTIN To Collaborate On Staff Training – MD
The Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc (AEDC), Engr. Akin Bada says the company will collaborate with the National Training Power Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) to raise the competency profile of its workers to improve service delivery to the customers by taking advantage of the training opportunities that the institute offers.
Engr. Bada, who gave the assurance when he received the Director-General of the Institute, Alhaji Bolaji Nagode, on Friday, in his office in Abuja, noted that NAPTIN has transformed itself into an international brand such that it has become the first port of call for utilities seeking to train its personnel in the electricity industry across the African continent.
According to Engr. Bada, human capital is the most critical asset of any organisation.
Given that fact, every organisation must continually ensure that the capacity of its most critical asset is constantly positioned to deliver on its mandate.
“I am happy that NAPTIN, which was established by the Federal Government of Nigeria to offer a wide range of manpower development programmes consistent with the needs of the industry, has shown itself to be able to respond to these needs of the training needs of the power sector. With your mandate and your pedigree as the foremost power training institute in Nigeria and the African continent, therefore, AEDC will take good advantage of this opportunity to build the capacity of its workers,” he said.
In his response, the DG of the Institute, Alhaji Bolaji Nagode congratulated Engr. Bada and the Interim Management team made up of Sani Usman, Donald Etim, Babajide Ibironke and Fem Zacchaeus on their appointment.
Alhaji Nagode said the appointment of Engr. Bada, a veteran of the industry, was indicative of the need to reposition AEDC for optimal service delivery to its customers.
“In this regard, we are prepared to work with your management for the repositioning of AEDC as a critical asset in the country through training.” Alhaji Nagode said the institute offers not only a wide range of human capacity training programmes, which are apt for the industry but also E-Learning programmes in response to the safety protocols of the COVID 19 pandemic and its different variants.
“Since this pandemic is not about to leave us anytime soon, as a training institute, we adopted e-Learning to ensure that the capacity of the workers in the sector is continually enhanced.”
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: BOST Makes Gh¢55M Profit Pre-Tax In 2021
Ghana’s petroleum strategic stock-keeping company, Bulk Oil Storage Transportation (BOST) Company Limited, has posted a pre-tax profit for the second time after recording losses.
The company made GH¢30 million profit in 2020, but after auditing of its account, the figure dropped to Gh¢2 million.
Speaking at a media engagement to present how the company fared in 2021 and the way forward for 2022, Managing Director of BOST, Edwin Nii Obadai Provencal revealed that the management account of the company shows a profit of GHc55 million at the end of December 2021.
Mr Provencal, however, told energynewsafrica.com that it is likely the 2022 pre-tax profit margin would drop if their accounts are audited, noting that some margin of the profit would cater for payment of taxes.
The last time the company posted profit was in 2012. Since then, the company had been wobbling in debt with its infrastructure suffering decay.
However, the company has seen a transformation over the last three years under the current management led by Edwin Alfred Nii Obodai Provencal.
According to the MD, the company has increased its revenue-earning assets from 17 per cent to 75 per cent over the last two years.
He said BOST, in the past few years, underwent a financial restructuring that allowed it to carry out its core mandate and generate the needed revenue for the government.
He said the financial turnaround strategy implemented at the fuel logistics company will be able to transform the company from a loss-making state enterprise to a profit-making entity such that it can pay dividends to shareholders.
He said BOST has been able to pay some $585 million out of the $624 million which was in arrears back in 2017, stressing that about 73 per cent of these liabilities were offset using internally generated funds by June 2021.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
European Union’s Landmark Proposal To Label Natural Gas As ‘Green’ Energy Is Good For Africa –AEC
Africa’s call for a just and inclusive energy transition has been answered through the European Union’s landmark proposal to label natural gas as a ‘green’ energy source.
Historically, Africa has always fought for sustainable development because we know, first-hand, the ravaging effects that even minute changes in climate can have on the continent and its populations. But to develop sustainably, Africa must first industrialize itself. It must have the same opportunities as Europe and other western countries. The point that natural gas serves as a transitional energy source is one that has been promoted by African nations for a long time and therefore, the African Energy Chamber hails the EU’s proposal as a landmark development that justifies a positive outlook for an inclusive energy transition.
It has taken a crisis in energy availability to bring about policies that could increase Africa’s energy supply. The current pressure from The West to acclimatize to cleaner energy systems has so far been exclusive in recognizing that the transition may differ in form and timing from one region to another. By restricting investment into energy sources, such as gas, Africa has stood the chance of being left behind during the energy transition, which is counterproductive and regressive.
“We have had our disagreements with our European friends, however, there has always been constructive, behind-the-scenes dialogue with European policy makers. They listened, worked, and let us make the case for Africa’s low-carbon LNG and these discussions have been critical in getting us to see eye-to-eye on gas, a lot of work still needs to be done to make this a reality” stated NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman of the African Energy Chamber, who added, “The demonization of Africa’s gas industry needs to stop, and investments need to come into the sector. While we continue this engagement, it is important that the oil and gas industry focuses its investment on further reducing carbon emissions within the gas value chain. Sustainable development and making energy poverty history will require Africa to increase gas within its energy mix, which will give us a fighting chance to reduce the continent’s carbon footprint, even when we are still under 4% of global emissions.”
Africa faces unique challenges and must be allowed to time its own energy transition according to its own needs. The proposal to label natural gas as ‘green’ energy is what a just energy transition looks like, and now, we need to finance it. To capitalize on this, the African Green Energy Summit, to be held at African Energy Week this year, will clearly outlined initiatives and positions ahead of this year’s COP27.
Now, at the dawn of a new year, Europe and Africa can collaborate and cooperate and stride in allegiance towards a brighter future. The two continents can set aside their differences and strive towards sustainable development together, paving the way for a new approach to Africa’s energy industry, one that serves the whole world and all its people as opposed to a privileged few. Should most EU members back the proposal, then it will become law from 2023, which the African Energy Chamber hopes will stand to help the U.S. recognize natural gas as a clean fuel, which it unfortunately does not under the Biden Administration’s current clean power plans.
This new proposal will pave the way for new European investments in natural gas in Africa and will therefore allow Europe to unlock billions of euros in finance and sustainable energy funds to support gas as a transitional energy source. The EU will want to import whatever natural gas Africa develops, which is constructive for project funding and will open doors to have candid discussions about furthering energy availability across the continent.
Some countries, like Senegal, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Nigeria, Angola, Ghana, Mauritania, Libya, Cameroon, Algeria, and Equatorial Guinea, have taken steps to monetize their natural resources to develop and industrialize independently. Thus, we need to give them time to realize the benefits of their strategic efforts and facilitate their own sovereignty when adhering to the energy transition. By using natural gas as a feedstock to create other value-added products, like petrochemicals, from fertilizers to ammonia, revenue can be used to build infrastructure, from pipelines to ports and roadways, and we can therefore open the doors to economic diversification for other African countries as well.
“Despite predictions that demand for African LNG is expected to grow for the foreseeable future, investments in gas exploration have been hit hard by a short-sighted bias against our low-carbon natural gas resources. This has led to a reluctance towards investing in supply projects because of the fractured global outlook towards natural gas,” continued Ayuk, concluding that, “African nations must be more pragmatic. If exploration and production companies must wait one or two years before their proposed projects are sanctioned, then the prospects for a sustainable African energy future will diminish rapidly. These practices, which help protect the interests of oil-producing nations, made sense when crude sold for $100 per barrel and before the energy transition took center stage, but they don’t make sense now.” Concluded Ayuk
While the African Energy Chamber hails the proposal as a win for Africa, it is not a time to regress to the continent’s old ways. Now is the time for African oil and gas producers to do everything in their power to encourage as much exploration and production activity as possible, particularly through International Oil Companies, National Oil Companies and African Independents. In the long term, African producers of oil and gas will continue to rely on the industry’s revenue to sustain economic growth and guarantee a just and inclusive energy transition, and should lobby for knowledge transfers, training, gas monetization programs, and other strategic opportunities so that their oil and gas operations can create pathways towards sustainable development and diversification.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria: I Am Not Happy With The State Of Power In Nigeria–Prez Buhari
The unreliable and poor power supply situation in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, is one of the myriads of problems giving the country’s leader, H.E Muhammadu Buhari, a sleepless night.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who is unhappy about the current situation, said: “I am not because I identify that no country can develop without infrastructure and infrastructure means road, rail and power,” President Buhari said in response to a question to him during an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, January 5, 2022.
Nigeria can produce 13,000 megawatts of electricity but currently, West Africa’s Africa’s most populous nation produces just 4,000 megawatts on the national grid.
According to President Buhari, his administration is working hard to provide infrastructure for Nigerian including improving electricity.
The President also shared more light on why the electricity supply is yet to be stable in the country.
While noting that the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is 100 per cent government-owned, he said his government inherited the Distribution Companies (DisCos).
According to the President, the owners of Discos bought them based on geo-political zones rather than merit.
He added, “The people that own them, who are they? They are not electrical engineers; they don’t have money; it is just a political favour.
“To remove a system and reintroduce one is no joke. Luckily, we have the TCN and that is the transmission. If we can get our technology right, we will cut the cost on transmission and the likelihood of sabotaging the lines and so on.”
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: GOIL Adjusts Fuel Prices By 5 Pesewas, Shell Maintains Prices
Ghana’s leading oil marketing company, GOIL Company Limited, has adjusted its fuel prices at the pump by five pesewas.
As of Wednesday, GOIL Company Limited was selling both Super XP and Diesel XP at Gh¢6.65 per litre.
It is not clear whether Shell, which is one of the leading Oil Marketing Companies, will adjust its fuel prices upward as GOIL and TotalEnergies have done.
Currently, TotalEnergies is the only OMC selling Super and Diesel at Gh¢ 6.80 and gh¢6.85 per litre respectively.
GOIL and Shell are selling at Gh¢6.65, 20 pesewas lower than TotalEnergies.
Some OMCs like Frimps Oil is selling a litre of diesel and petrol at Ghc6.27 per litre while Pacific sells at Ghc6.29 per litre.
Frimps sells at GHc6.43 per litre.
Earlier this week, COPEC predicted that the ex-pump prices of petrol and diesel would surge by 3.7 per cent and 2.5 per cent respectively on the local market.
“In nominal terms, ex-pump prices of petrol and diesel are expected to increase by 24 pesewas and 17 pesewas respectively.
“The average surge for both products in nominal terms is 20 pesewas, representing 3.1 per cent. Some OMCs could increase their prices less than the 20 pesewas due to competition,” COPEC concluded in a statement.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Gov’t Suspends Price Stabilisation & Recovery Levy For Another One Month
The Government of Ghana has extended the two months’ suspension of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy (PSRL) to one more month.
The PSRL is one of the tax components of the petroleum price build-up in the Republic of Ghana.
Consumers pay 16 pesewas as PSRL on a litre of petrol and 14 pesewas on a litre of diesel and a kilogramme of LPG.
President Akufo-Addo directed the country’s petroleum downstream regulator, NPA, to suspend the PSRL for two months from November to the end of December 2021.
The move was intended to cushion Ghanaians from the rising cost of fuel on the local market as crude oil prices on the world market continued to skyrocket.
In October, International Benchmark Brent hit $86 per barrel.
The PSRL was expected to be reintroduced in January 2022.
However, the Communications Manager at NPA, Kudus Mohammed said the government has extended the suspension of the Price Stabilisation and Recovery Levy to the end of January 2022.
Meanwhile, some Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) had already adjusted their fuel prices at the pump with TotalEnergies currently selling super at Gh¢6.80 per litre while diesel is sold at Gh¢6.85 per litre from an earlier GHc6.65 per litre for both products.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Nigeria: Electricity Consumers Won’t Tolerate Poor Services In 2022-Adetayo
Electricity Consumers in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, are hoping that electricity distribution companies will improve upon their service in 2022.
Almost half of the over 210 million people are without electricity from the country’s grid and resort to other means to provide light for their homes.
Interestingly, even those who are connected to the national grid hardly enjoy a stable and quality electricity supply.
Expressing the frustrations of electricity consumers in Nigeria and what is expected of the distribution companies, Adetayo Adegbemle, Executive Director of PowerUp Nigeria, a consumer advocacy group, took on IBEDC for treating its customers poorly.
He sarcastically thanked IBEDC for bringing light at 12:13 am and taking it by 5:23 am in some of its franchise areas.
“While people and places are enjoying nearly 24 hours in other state capitals, this is probably the best you could do in Ibadan.
“You don’t even have the decency to allow people to celebrate Christmas and New Year with some dignity,” he fumed.
He added: “This is 2022. If you need help, please let go of the areas you cannot serve; same advice goes to all other Discos as well. And I pray that we get regulators who are willing and ready for reforms.
“This charade of service provisioning has to stop,” he concluded.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
NBET’s Monopsony: The Drawbacks Of Single Buyer Model In Nigeria Electricity Market
Recently, there were stakeholders’ engagements organized by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission [NERC] on whether to renew the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading license. This generated lots of arguments for and against among the industry stakeholders and market participants. Though not confirmed, there is a rumour that NBET’s license has been extended for another three years.
Though Nigeria has partially liberalized her electricity market with the unbundling of the old NEPA, there still exists a monopoly in wholesale electricity trading as evident in the single buyer model of the wholesale market where NBET- a state owned entity is the single buyer.
The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) was established to purchases electricity from the generating companies through Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and sell to the distribution companies through Vesting Contracts.
NBET was established to increase investors’ confidence in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry- (NESI) by shielding the Gencos – and by extension, protecting the natural gas producers from market risks. However, NBET has been unable to shield Gencos and gas producers from the liquidity crisis that has plagued the industry.
Not only has NBET’s mission proved unsustainable as it has never for a time been able to fulfil its obligations to the Gencos, its inhibitive monopsony has curtailed investments in the sector.
The single buyer model started in the 1990s mostly among the developing nations. The essence was to increase generating capacity by authorizing private investors to build power plants to generate and sell power to the national grid. The generated power is sold through a long term power purchase agreements- PPAs which include take-or pay and capacity charges to protect investors from market risks.
This model is supposed to be a transitional arrangement before the conditions for a competitive wholesale markets are satisfied. The reality of the liquidity problems this model has created in the Nigerian power sector shows this is no longer sustainable, and the much awaited conducive time for the market to transit to a more competitive one may never come.
The single buyer model has many drawbacks especially in a nation like ours where there is weak regulation, corruption, and lack of any credit policy to mitigate counterparty risk in the power sector.
First, power purchase agreements-PPAs in single buyer model creates a contingent liability for the government whenever NBET is unable to honour its obligation to the power generating companies. This has been the case in our market because the distribution companies-Discos hardly remit up to 40% of energy sold to them due to their high ATC&C loss. This was why the federal government had to release 1.3trillion naira Payment Assurance Guarantee to the sector. This payment was inevitable because of formalized guarantee agreements and a breach would have undermined the government’s creditworthiness. This is a huge sum the country would have spent on health, education, or roads.
Second, this model weakens the motivations for power distribution companies to collect and remit payments from the customers. The state owned- NBET won’t dare take a politically unpopular action against any delinquent distribution companies as the government still retains 40% ownership in these companies. Over the years, collections and remittance by all the Discos have been abysmal and when the few performing Discos see that there is no repercussion for the poor performing ones, the incentive to improve collections weakens. Though the Vesting contracts between NBET and the Discos are backed by some sorts of payment guarantees, but there is no evidence of those guarantees being enforceable.
Third, this model makes it easy for the government and some influential parties to influence or intervene in the dispatch of generation. The guideline for economic merit order dispatch mandates the hydro plants to be utility must run generation. It is weird that the most expensive thermal plant in our generation portfolio has a dispatch rate higher than some hydro plants.
When Azura-Edo IPP began ramping up its electricity sale volumes, there was a simultaneous winding down of electricity sale volumes from the state-owned Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC). Today, we have many NIPPs lying dormant and has been put up for sale by Bureau of Public Enterprise-BPE because NBET lacks the fiscal capability to enter into power purchase agreements with them.
Fourth, decisions about adding more generation capacity are often made by government officials who do not have to bear financial consequences of their actions. Where investors who have backers in government find government assurance attractive, there is always a bias to increase generation capacity. Our installed generation capacity is about 13,500MW but our baseload demand hovers around 3500-4500MW and peak demand has not exceeded 5800MW. Despite the stranded capacity of about 8000MW, there are still several calls for increased generation. With assured capacity payments for the existing stranded capacity, it is not economically wise and sustainable for NBET to continue to be the sole buyer in the wholesale market.
Lastly, this single buyer model increases the probability that under pressure from vested interests, government will indefinitely delay the next step towards a fully liberalized electricity market. It is not surprising that many clamoured for the renewal of NBET’s license making excuses of financial non-viability of the Discos and non-readiness of the market for full competition.
The government tried to address the challenges associated with the single buyer model with the introduction of Eligible Customers’ Regulation. This was aimed at allowing the creditworthy large users like industrial customers and residential estates to buy electricity from the generators through bilateral contracts. Sadly, we haven’t progressed with this policy due to many reasons.
Allowing power generators to sell electricity directly to distribution companies and eligible customers eliminates most of the drawbacks of single buyer model. Though the bilateral contract model also poses some challenges because even with the best forecast and load analysis, electricity generation and consumption of sellers and buyers hardly match the contracted amounts. A balancing market administered by the System Operator is to be created to maintain balance at real time.
It is inevitable that the Nigerian electricity market needs to transit to bilateral contracts and allow full competition in the wholesale market.
The generating companies are hemorrhaging with huge debts and as long as they can’t sell their stranded capacity or get paid for energy sold as at when due- government’s bail out becomes inevitable to avoid total collapse of the industry. There exists in the market unmet and unfulfilled energy demand by many industrial and commercial customers who presently rely on captive generation.
The regulator-NERC has to be brave and allow competition in the wholesale market for Discos and these creditworthy large electricity users to contract bilaterally with the Gencos, otherwise- the government may still be providing subsidy for the cash trapped power sector.
Lanre Elatuyi- Electricity Market Analyst.
[email protected]
OPEC Appoints Haitham Al-Ghais As New Secretary-General
The Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) has voted to appoint Kuwaiti candidate Haitham Al-Ghais as its new Secretary-General.
In a statement, the oil cartel said Al-Ghais was selected at a special meeting of the Conference of OPEC held via videoconference on Monday, January 3, 2022.
He will replace Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, a Nigerian representative, when his second term as OPEC Secretary-General ends in July 2022.
“By Article 28 of the OPEC Statute and the application of the procedure decided at the 182nd Meeting of the Conference on 1 December 2021, the Conference decided by acclamation to appoint Mr Haitham Al-Ghais of Kuwait as Secretary-General of the Organization, with effect from 1 August 2022, for three years,” the statement explained.
Mr Al-Ghais, a veteran of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and Kuwait’s OPEC Governor from 2017 to June 2021, currently serves as Deputy Managing Director for International Marketing at KPC.
He chaired the Joint Technical Committee (JTC) of the Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) in 2017 and subsequently served as a member of the JTC until June 2021.
According to the statement, the Conference of OPEC expressed its appreciation to Barkindo for his leadership during his two-term tenure as Secretary-General from August 1, 2016, to July 31, 2022.
“A long-serving veteran of Nigeria’s oil industry and OPEC, Mr Barkindo, has been instrumental in expanding OPEC’s historical efforts to support sustainable oil market stability through enhanced dialogue and cooperation with many energy stakeholders, including the landmark DoC since its inception in December 2016,” the statement said.
“These efforts are widely credited with helping to stabilize the global oil market since the unprecedented market downturn related to the COVID-19 pandemic, and providing a platform for recovery.
“Before being appointed Secretary-General, Mr Barkindo held several key roles at OPEC between 1986 and 2010, including as Acting Secretary-General in 2006. He is known internationally for helping to produce the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol as the leader of Nigeria’s technical delegation to the UN negotiations in 1991.
“He has remained a key contributor to the UNFCCC process, including most recently at the 26th Conference of Parties (COP) meeting in Glasgow in October and November 2021.”
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com