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Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, yesterday said that the national oil firm and its partners expect first gas production from the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project by the first quarter of 2023.
A statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, of the NNPC, Mr Garba Muhammad, last night said that the board expressed satisfaction with the progress of work done on the project and believed that the target for delivering it will be met.
The statement added that Kyari spoke when he took the NNPC board members on an official tour of segment “A” site of the project in Abaji Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The GMD, who was accompanied by other members of his management team, was quoted to have said that as a result of activities around the AKK project, the country will see over 8 billion standard cubic feet (scf) of gas injected into the domestic pipeline.
According to him, this will 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 this administration”, said that 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, Senator Margery Okadigbo, said 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.
She noted that the country stood the chance to leverage on the current realities to provide solutions to the global gas supply challenge.
Chairman of Oilserve, the Company handling Segment A of the AKK project, Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, according to the statement, confirmed his company’s readiness to deliver the project on schedule.
He assured that the project managers and teams were more than competent to deliver the project within 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 industrialisation.