Federal Government Offsets $120m Debt Owed GasCos

According to news reports, the federal government said it has paid over $120 million to offset part of the debts owed to the gas companies (GasCos), for electricity generation. The government said the measure was to address the indebtedness of the country’s power sector to electricity-generating companies (GenCos) and gas companies (GasCos). The Director of Decade of Gas Secretariat, Ed Ubong, disclosed this at the ongoing 7th Edition of the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2024) yesterday in Abuja. Ubong, also, said the government is working on a framework to curb most of the failures in the system. He said, “The arrears gas producers are owed as of last year was about $ 1.3 billion. But I am pleased that between October 2023 and the end of January, the government has paid over $120 million to offset some of that money.” Earlier, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, had noted that the total debt owed to power-generating companies was N1.3 trillion, out of which 60 % was owed to gas suppliers. Also, the Transmission Company attributed the recent decline in power supply to a decrease in available generation to the grid due to gas constraints.