A wild midnight fire on the Escravos leading to the Lagos Pipeline (ELP) has left a better part of Nigeria in darkness. The ELP is a natural gas pipeline which supplies gas from Escravos region of the Niger Delta area to Lagos.

Within a space of about 16 hours, the country’s electricity grid practically collapsed leaving many parts of the country in total blackout. Though firemen were said to have been drafted to the scene and were able to contain the fire from the leak point, however, the fire could not be extinguished due to the high pressure of the line.

Some officials of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) confirmed that the first collapse contributed largely to the second shutdown, as the country lost about 3,000 megawatts of electricity due to the incidents.

It was gathered that the fire outbreak on the ELP, a natural gas pipeline that supplies gas from the Escravos region of the Niger Delta area to Lagos, would affect the supply of gas to three states in the South-West.

According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, gas supply to Lagos, Ogun and Ondo states will be affected as a result of the fire outbreak on the ELP.

The pipeline also supplies gas to power plants in the South West, in addition to feeding the West Africa Gas Pipeline System.