Petroleum Africa
Find us on: 
Friday, September 12, 2014
Tony Elumelu, chairman of Heirs Holdings, has ambitious plans for his company, aiming to “generate at least a quarter of Nigeria’s power consumption needs in the next five years.” Heirs Holdings’ interests in the power sector include Transcorp Ughelli Power, a gas-fired, thermal power generating plant which was acquired under the privatization of Nigeria’s power sector.
According to the Heirs Holdings chairman “the power industry is a catalytic sector and the development of our country and our continent cannot happen without fixing it.”
He went on to describe the US’ recent launch of the Power Africa Initiative as “an amazing opportunity to democratize access to power for Africans.” Heirs itself has made a $2.5 billion investment commitment to the country’s power industry. Elumelu said that the investment the company made “reflects exactly how excited I am about it. The present administration made a bold decision when it decided to affect the changes envisaged by the Power Sector Reform Act — legislation that had been on the books since 2005. And that bold step was reinforced during President Barack Obama’s last visit to Africa. We felt more strongly than ever, the need to help power Africa.”
He continues: “Our experience so far at Ughelli power plant is testimony to the size of the opportunity; our amazing team has taken that plant from 150 MW capacity when we took over in November 2013, to 450 MW today; we expect it to increase 700 MW by October and to achieve 1,000 MW by Q2 2015.”
At the rate the company is going it will be contributing 20% of Nigeria’s total power generation. Currently Heirs is working on a Greenfield project that will expand the capacity of Ughelli by an additional 1,000 MW in the next three to five years and it has signed an MoU with GE and Symbion Power to facilitate this.
While Emulelu is enthusiastic about Nigeria’s power sector he does admit that there are some challenges to be overcome; namely unreliable transmission infrastructure, access to uninterrupted gas supply, and timely settlement of invoiced payments.
“In Nigeria, one of the biggest challenges to power generation is transmission and in fact, while Ughelli Power Plant generated at full capacity for the first time in July, we’ve been asked to scale down generation because of the outdated transmission systems; for every 100 MW generated and sent to transmission companies, 40% is lost, in part because of this infrastructure issue,” Emulelu explained.
While regulation is not a key challenge, says the Heirs Holdings chairman, it is an issue within the sector that if addressed, has the potential to speed sector growth exponentially. “We need pragmatic regulation that recognizes that within Nigeria, the sector is nascent and so policies must be designed to encourage growth. In fairness, the federal government is confronting these challenges head on.”
" alt="First LNG Realized at the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim Project">
" alt="United Energy Acquires Western Desert Producer APEX">
" alt="Baker Hughes Announces Major Gas Technology Orders for Venture Global LNG">
" alt="ReconAfrica: Naingopo Results Demonstrate a Working Petroleum System">
" alt="Tullow Highlights 2025 Operational Plans in Ghana">
" alt="TotalEnergies to Supply 1.5 TWh to STMicroelectronics in France Over 15 years">
" alt="Rockhopper Reaches Final Settlement with United on Egypt’s Abu Sennan Concession">
" alt="Oil & Gas Crucial for African Growth: AEC Calls for Industry Support to Defend African Market">
