The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) says the Gwagwalada Independent Power Plant (GIPP) project is a giant step toward achieving its gas and power mandate to add five Gigawatts to the national power generation by 2024.

The NNPCL Group CEO, Mele Kyari, made this known while speaking at the presidential groundbreaking of the 350 Megawatts (MW) Gwagwalada Independent Power Plant (GIPP) project in Gwagwalada, Abuja, on Friday, August 4, 2023.

The groundbreaking was performed by President Bola Tinubu in the company of other top government dignitaries.

The gas plant is a 1,350MW Combined Cycle Power Plant with auxiliaries and Balance of Plant to be situated on 547 hectares of land already acquired at Gwagwalada,

Kyari said the 350MW project was the first phase of the planned capacity of 1,350MW Gwagwalada Independent Power Plant, adding that Nigeria is endowed with significant natural gas resources of over 209TCF of proven gas reserves, and potential reserve of over 600TCF.

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He said as a commercial enterprise, NNPCL took the project as an opportunity to monetise Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources, by expanding access to energy to support economic growth, industrialisation, and job creation nationwide.

To achieve this national aspiration, he said, the NNPC had invested heavily in domestic gas footprint expansion projects through the delivery of the Trans-Nigeria Pipeline Project.

This, he said, included the Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS & ELPS Il), the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (0B3) gas pipeline and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline.

The NNPCL boss said: “Currently NNPC and partners are delivering about 800MW to the national grid from Afam VI and Okpai Phase One thermal power plants with combined installed capacity of 1,100MW.

“We have also completed Okpai Phase Two project that will add up to 320MW of power to the national grid and progressing with other power plant projects across the country including those along the AKK pipeline route.

“The Gwagwalada IPP is among the NNPC flagship power projects along the AKK corridor. This is part of the 3,600MW cumulative power capacity which includes Kaduna IPP (900MW) and Kano IPP (1,350MW).”

He said the project would be delivered in collaboration with General Electric as the Original Equipment Manufacturer and China Machinery and Engineering Corporation as the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) contractor.

The Star