According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), the current Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline and Station project has already cost over 1.1 billion dollars.
Malam Mele Kyari, the GCEO of NNPC Limited, made this statement on Monday while touring some of its project locations in Kogi with media personnel and other stakeholders.
Top representatives from the project’s contractor, Oilserv Limited (Pipelines and Facilities) and the NNPC Limited were with Kyari.
Even though it lacked outside funding for the project, Kyari stated that the company would continue to fund the enormous undertaking that it was completing in stages and that it had been actively working on.
He continues by saying;
“So far, NNPC Ltd has funded over 1.1 billion dollars on the project, and to date none of the project activities is abandoned as reported and we reassure all stakeholders that we have a line of sight to project delivery on schedule.
“NNPC Limited remains highly committed towards the delivery of strategic National infrastructure projects through responsive project delivery, active collaboration with government security agencies and communities as well as deployment of technology for delivering the project.
“This is is one of the most massive projects of proportion value to our country for economic growth. It is a must-deliver project and we have continued to fund in spite of not having third party finance support, we will deliver this project.
“We do not owe a dollar to our contractors, there are over 30 sites that are active today in this project, we are very hopeful and optimistic to deliver this project,” he assured.
The GCEO bemoaned the fact that the company had lost some site workers as a result of insecurity, expressed sorrow over their passing, and offered consolation to their families, saying that the company understood their anguish.
He added that 70% of the welding work had been finished and that once the welding was finished, the pipeline could truly flow gas.
Upon completion, he claimed, the pipeline will provide two billion cubic feet of gas, supplying energy to power plants, industries, and other gas-dependent businesses.
He predicted that all of the welding would be finished by the third quarter of 2023, at which point the pipeline would be powered.
Kyari added that construction of the Abuja-Kaduna power plants would shortly get under way, and that the gas pipeline was expected to support power plants with a combined 3,645 Mega Watts of output.
The project’s development was previously shown by three schematics of the pipeline and station installations, including the Brovo, Chalie, and Alpha spread portion, according to Mr. Steve Nnorom, project manager for Oilserv Ltd.
He claimed they were currently performing full auto welding, had accomplished 73% of their mainland welding job, and had 222 kilo meters of welding work left to do.
“We are crossing rivers, railway, existing pipelines. We have other sites where various work activities are ongoing, our target is that concurrently all works will be going on at different spread,” he said
While noting that the project has been ongoing and is fully funded, Nnorom claimed that all of its employees are Nigerians.
Ref: NAN
