Gas turbine commission

Shell Petroleum Development Company (

) is leading a venture with Nigerian National Petroleum Company (

),

and

to commission the first turbine for the Afam Gas and Power Project.

The project involves the development of the Afam VI Power Plant, the Okoloma Gas Plant and associated gas wells. To date, joint venture partners have invested $1.3bn (£0.8bn) in its development.

The Okoloma Gas Plant began supply of gas on October 11, and commissioning of the second turbine is planned for early next month. When completed, the companies hope that the facility will supply around 20 per cent of the current total Nigerian domestic gas supply.

The new power plant has already supplied approximately 64,000MW hours of electricity to Nigerian consumers. By the end of the first phase the plant is expected to generate approximately 450MW.

The second phase of the project is designed to provide environmental and efficiency benefits by using steam from the exhaust gases of the three gas turbines to provide an extra 200MW of electricity.