(Business in Cameroon) - The National Hydrocarbons Corporation (SNH) informs that by end-October 2020, it supplied  8,286.56 million cubic meters ( 234.68 million m³) of natural gas to Kribi thermal power plant.

According to the SNH, this volume (which is below the contractual volume) represents an average production of 127.60 megawatts (MW), which is 59.07% of the thermal plant’s nominal capacity (216 MW). So, the thermal plant’s production dropped by about 41% over the period.

For the SNH, the drop in gas supply was partly due to the negative impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. Because of the pandemic, Kribi thermal power plant (as well as the other thermal plants operating in the country) experienced cash flow problems, which affected their supplies.

This explanation provided by the SNH corroborates with the analysis of electric utility ENEO. The latter had explained that the drop in thermal energy production in Q1-2020 was due to “fuel shortage caused by enormous cash constraints." This led to numerous power outages, which were partially offset by hydroelectricity whose production rose by about 3%  during the said period. Over the period, the Songloulou and Edéa plants provided 65% of Cameroon's energy supply, compared with 19% for the Kribi and Dibamba gas-fired plants controlled by Globeleq.

S.A.