The extreme electricity shortage in Nigeria has
been blamed a so many factors including but not limited to financial, structural and socio-political reasons. Over the years successive governments
have made efforts to address the energy crisis in which huge sums money committed but all to no avail. Unfortunately, they have concentrated on only two sources of power generation which are hydro and gas. For instance, Nigeria has a total of three hydro plants located in Kainji, Jebba and Shiroro. She also has several thermal installed power plants comprising those of Egbin, Sapele, Okpai, Afam, Delta and Omoku. Others include the Ajaokuta, Geregu, Omotosho and Olorunsogo.

It is estimated that only about 10 percent of rural dwellers and about 40 percent of urban families have access to electricity. This obvious deficiency has earned Nigeria the title: ‘A Diesel Generator Economy’. This deficiency has over the years become a major impediment to the achievement of the Federal Government’s Vision 20-20-20 by which it projects that the country will be among the 20 biggest economies of the world by the year 2020. This is in addition to hampering the realisation of Nigeria’s Millennium Development Goals.

In terms of generating power using gas, the government has through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Joint Venture with some multinational oil companies undertaken several projects designed to utilise gas in power generation.