Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited has reached commercial terms to transfer the ownership of Qua Iboe Power Plant (QIPP) to BLACK RHINO, a wholly owned subsidiary of Black Stone Group and DANGOTE GROUP.
Alhaji Mohammed Sanusi II, Emir of Kano is the Chairman of BLACK RHINO GROUP, while Alhaji Aliko Dangote is the Chairman of DANGOTE GROUP.
Under the terms, Black Rhino and Dangote Group would take over the ownership of the plant and finance the gas-fired power plant, the 58km off-shore pipeline and platform modification needed to supply gas to the power plant, while MPNU would be responsible for the supply of gas from its off-shore facilities to the plant.
At the formal transfer of the plant to the two companies, Mr. Paul Arinze, General Manager, Public & Government Affairs of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited Monday confirmed the story to staffers of his department and sought their cooperation to ensure successful operations of the deal.
QIPP was initially an MPNU project meant to boost power supply in the country in line with the Federal Government Roadmap on power generation, as part of its five principal components of Economic Recovery and Growth Plan, ERGP.
To give life to the project, Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading PLC (NBET) and Qua Iboe Power Plant (QIPP) signed the historic Power Purchase Agreement on Thursday, October 26, 2017. Federal Government supervised the signing ceremony.
The partners secured the deal with the sum of $1.1billion. The project is intended to increase power generation by 540MW.
On completion, the QIPP would utilise Nigerian Gas Resources to increase the overall electricity generation capacity and ultimately reduced cost of power.
Babatunde Fashola, Minister of Power, Works and Housing witnessed the ceremony.
Others that witnessed were Mr. Stuart Symington, US Ambassador to Nigeria, MD of NBET, Marilyn Amobi; Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Power, Loius Edozie; NNPC senior official, Alhaji Saide Mohammed, among others.