Nigeria’s electricity grid has been shut down by a fire on a gas pipeline, the ministry of power said in a statement on Wednesday.

Gas supply to several power stations was cut off because of the fire on the Escravos Lagos Pipeline System near Okada in the southern state of Edo, the ministry said.

“The sudden loss of generation due to interruption in gas supply from these stations caused the national transmission grid to trip off around 20:20 on 2nd January,” it said.