The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has revealed that the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta–Kaduna–Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project being constructed by Oilserve Limited will be inaugurated next month (December 2023).
This was made known by the Executive Vice President, Upstream, NNPC Limited, Oritsemiyiwa Eyesan, while delivering an industry address at the ongoing 41st Nigeria Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) 2023 expo on Tuesday in Lagos.
This is coming in the heels of an earlier pronouncement by Nigeria’s Minister of State of Petroleum (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, where he had the contractors working on the AKK gas pipeline to ensure the asset is ready by July/August 2024.
Eyesan, who represented the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of NNPC, Mele Kyari, presented an address at the Management Session themed ‘Energy Infrastructure Development, Financing & Monetisation Strategies in Nigeria: Reducing the Risks of Entry.
December deadline commitment to Nigeria’s gas master plan
She said the commitment to delivering the project in December was a testament to the company’s commitment to Nigeria’s Gas Master Plan.
- She said, “In the coming months, you are going to be seeing a great difference in the way we operate because NNPC is poised to drive in more investments into the oil and gas sector. One of such huge investments is the AKK gas pipeline that will be commissioned this December.’’
The NAPE Conference is an annual convergence of geologists and industry professionals engaged in oil and gas exploration and production.
What you should know
- Recall that in June 2020, President Muhammadu Buhari flagged off the construction of the $2.8 billion 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) natural gas pipeline, the single biggest gas pipeline project in Nigeria’s history, in Ajaokuta (Kogi State) and Rigachikun (Kaduna State).
- The project, which took off after months of discussions in and out of the country, is expected to carry gas between the southern and northern parts of the country and will eventually extend to North Africa.
- The 614 kilometres-long natural gas pipeline of the Trans-Nigeria Gas Pipeline (TNGP) project, is to be done on a build-and-transfer Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis. It will transport 3,500 million metric standard cubic feet per day of dehydrated gas from several gas gathering projects located in southern Nigeria.
- The AKK pipeline is being developed by the NNPCL to transport natural gas from southern Nigeria to central Nigeria.