PICTURE CAPTION
NNPC GMD, Mele Kyari (left) and members of NNPC Board of Directors at the site of the AKK gas pipeline in Abaji on Thursday.
By Bassey Udo
The construction of the multi-billion Naira Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline Project is progressing on course towards the delivery of first gas in the first quarter of 2023, the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) said on Thursday.
The Group Managing Director (GMD)/CEO of the company, Mele Kyari, disclosed this when he took members of the NNPC Board on an official tour of Segment A sites of the project in Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
He was accompanied by other members of his management team on the inspection.
Kyari said when completed and operational, the AKK pipeline would transport over eight billion standard cubic feet (scf) of gas to be injected into the domestic pipeline to improve power generation, facilitate industrial development, create thousands of job opportunities and deepen domestic gas utilisation.
Kyari, who described the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Pipeline as “a signature project of the present administration”, said it was time for Nigeria to take advantage of having the highest gas reserves in Africa.
Earlier in her remarks, the Chairman of the NNPC Board, Margery Okadigbo, expressed satisfaction at the progress of work on the project so far, saying that based on the magnitude of work done at the various construction sites, the projection to have first gas by the first quarter of 2023 was realisable.
Okadigbo said the country stood the chance to leverage on the current realities to provide solutions to the global gas supply challenge if the pipeline is completed and made to become functional.
Chairman of Oilserve, the company handling Segment A of the AKK project, Emeka Okwuosa, confirmed his company’s readiness to deliver the project on schedule.
Okwuosa assured that the project managers and teams were more than competent to deliver the project within the record time.
The construction of the 614km AKK Pipeline project was flagged-off simultaneously in Kogi and Kaduna States by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2020 to encourage gas utilization and serve as a springboard for the nation’s industrialization.
The pipeline, which is expected to beidge the divide between the South and Northern part of the country, would convey gas from the Niger Delta oil fields for supply to industrial establishments in the north.
It would also be linked to the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline that designed to take gas the northern part of Africa through Morocco for onward delivery to Europe, which is currently experiencing energy supply crisis as a result of the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
