Geometric Power, Nigerias foremost integrated electricity group, on Thursday decried the acute shortage of natural gas supply to its 188-megawatt plant in the Osisioma Industrial Estate in Aba, Abia State, saying it is affecting the state's economic growth.

Due to the grave shortage of gas, said Ugo Opiegbe, the managing director of Aba Power, Nigerias 12th electricity distribution company which is Geometric Powers embedded firm, we have been constrained to import 25megawatts from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) at a huge cost, just to ensure that our customers have supplies, no matter the cost to us.

Continued Opiegbe in the statement: It is a supreme irony that though we are ready to generate 141MW from our three General Electric (GE) turbines and provide uninterrupted, quality and affordable electricity to nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State we service and export some 50MW potential excess power to the national grid to make power more available to other places in Nigeria, we are importing electricity because of the grave gas constraints.

The company notes that the Aba Ringfence needs about 90MW, which it can generate from two of its installed three turbines, with a capacity of 47MW each.

Therefore, the 25MW from the NDPHC is like a drop of water in the ocean.

The unreliable gas supply is affecting hundreds of thousands of our customers, particularly manufacturing firms for whose sake Geometric Power built the $800m Aba Integrated Power Project to accelerate the industrial development of Aba and its environs and serve as a model of electricity development in Nigeria, a promising nation whose growth has been hampered seriously over the decades by the absence of such basic infrastructure as reliable power.

Regarded as the biggest private sector investment in the Southeast, the Aba power integrated project was commissioned last February 26 by Vice President Kashim Shettima on behalf of President Bola Tinubu.

According to Ogbonna Chukwueke, an engineer and gas expert who used to be a Shell executive, Geometric Power signed an agreement with The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) in 2009 for the supply of 43 million standard cubic feet of gas (MSCF) from its Oil Mining Licences (OMLs) 11 and 17 in Owaza, Ukwa East Local Government Area of Abia State, for its four turbines to produce 47MW each.

However, noted the erstwhile Shell engineer who is now a petroleum consultant in Lagos, the withdrawal of the petroleum giant from Nigerias onshore and shallow offshore operations following years of massive oil theft, vandalism against its facilities, community issues and kidnapping of its officers for ransom by criminal gangs led to the transfer of the ownership and management of the OMLs 11 and 17 to local operators who unfortunately have not been able to deliver even up to 10 Million SCF daily on any occasion to the power plant, Geometric Power.

But Geometric Power has revealed that it is working frantically to resolve the gas supply challenge, acknowledging what it described as the wonderful and patriotic efforts of Vice President Shettima, Abia State Governor Alex Otti, Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu, and Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Group Managing Director Mele Kyari in assisting to get a more reliable source of gas to the power plant.

From the look of things, continued the power utility, we should be able to overcome the gas shortage within a month.