The Federal Government has paid 120 million dollars out of the 1.3 billion dollars indebtedness to gas companies for the supply of gas to run gas-fired power plants across the country.

Nigeria is currently suffering from low power supply because many gas suppliers have reduced, while others stopped supplying the commodity to power-generating companies due to the indebtedness of the Gencos to gas-producing firms.

The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, recently revealed that the crash in power generation and attendant poor supply since January was because gas suppliers stopped supplying gas for the generation of electricity due to the indebtedness of the sector to gas producers.

Nigeria gets more than 70 per cent of its electricity from thermal power plants that run on gas. The remaining amount of electricity comes from hydropower-generating plants.

Speaking at the ongoing 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja on Thursday, the Director, Decade of Gas Secretariat, Ed Ubong, expressed excitement that the Federal Government had cleared $120m out of the $1.3bn gas debts.

The Decade of Gas Secretariat is under the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources (Gas). The Federal Government is subsidising electricity by paying for the gas used in generating power, as Nigerian power users are currently not paying the exact amount for electricity.