Article Summary
- The AKK gas pipeline project is 70% complete according to NNPC Limited.
- The project missed its completion deadline in Q1/2023.
- AKK gas pipeline will help Nigeria with its gas-based industrialization plans.
On Monday, April 24, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited announced that the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline is 70% complete. The company made the announcement via its Twitter account. The announcement read thus:
“Earlier today, the Group Chief Executive Officer, Mele Kyari on an inspection tour of one of the AKK gas pipeline project sites in Ahoko, Kogi State said the project is almost at 70% completion with over $1.1 billion so far released to finance the project.”
The company quoted Mele Kyari, as saying:
“The AKK gas pipeline is one massive project we are running as NNPC Limited. It has immense value for Nigeria & its socio-economic growth. The project has not stopped for one day. We have continued to fund it despite the absence of third-party financing.”
“We have so far spent over $1.1 billion on this project from our cash flow. We are a commercial company today. We have inter-company laws within our company now. This company can fund this project, so we do not need any support to deliver this project now.
“As we speak now, we don’t owe a dollar to our contractors today. We paid all their invoices. There are over 30 active sites today in this project, and we are very hopeful that we will deliver this project.”
“The Ajaokuta Kaduna Kano (AKK) GAS pipeline will flow 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (Bscf/d) and will power industries, power plants & create gas-based industries. By Q3 2023, we will complete the entire welding job on this line which means we will be able to energize it by the end of this year.”
Missed deadline
In April 2022, Mele Kyari announced that the company was confident that the AKK gas pipeline project would be complete by the first quarter of 2023. At the time, he had said:
“We are very confident that by the first quarter of 2023, we will put gas on these pipelines. This project will be delivered on schedule and timely, we are putting in place everything required to deliver the project.
“We have missed some schedules, but we are doing a catch-up, we have put a number of interventions that are necessary, including deployment of additional resources required to deliver the project.”
Some facts about the AKK gas pipeline
In May 2022, Mr. Emeka Kwuosa, the Chairman, of Oilserv Limited Oilserv Limited, the contractor handling the ongoing Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project said the following about the AKK gas pipeline project:
The project is a good target for European markets in view of exploring opportunities for gas exportation.
It is the single largest gas project in Nigeria, which is important and is expected to stimulate gas infrastructural development and industrialization in the country.
When complete, the AKK gas pipeline project would boost the agricultural and manufacturing sectors, carbon footprint as part of measures to cut down on global warming and provide gas for the generation of power and gas-based industries.