Contrary to reports citing funding constraints, the $2.8bn Abuja-Kaduna-Kano gas pipeline project has been scheduled to start producing gas along that corridor within the third quarter of this year as work has reached 70 per cent at the project site. This is just as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd said that it has so far released the sum of $1.1bn from its cashflows to finance the project which is considered as a critical component of the Federal Government gas masterplan initiative.

The Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC LTD, Mele Kyari gave the figure during an interview with journalists at an inspection tour of one of the project sites located in Ahoko, Kogi State. The AKK 614 kilometers gas project has been in the plan for decades with Tenders issued by NNPC in July 2013 and approval granted by the Federal Executive Council in December 2017. The construction only commenced in July 2020.

But a national newspaper had reported that financiers of the AKK pipeline project have pulled out of the project, citing alleged 570 per cent inflated contract sum, far above global threshold. The paper had also claimed in the report that the project has been stalled, as there is no funding to cover cost of the second and third legs from Abuja to Kaduna and Kaduna to Kano due to funding constraints.

But speaking shortly after inspecting the project, the NNPC Boss said that work has not stopped as a result of funding constraint since the project commenced. He said being a critical infrastructure project for the Nigerian energy sector, the NNPC has been meeting all it’s funding obligation to the contractors. He said, “First of all we are here to thank our crew, our contractors, our staff who are doing everything possible to deliver this project and we are most grateful to them and we appreciate the great work they are doing.

“For the benefit of the Nigerian public, this is one of the most massive project that we’ll run in the company, it is of immense proportion of value to our country and to the socio-economic growth of our country. We know that this is a must deliver project. This project has not stopped for one day. We have continued to fund it despite the fact that we do not have third-party financing for the project. We have so far spent over $1.1bn on this project from our cashflow. We are a very different company today. We are a commercial company. We have inter-company laws within our company now. This company can fund this project, so we do not need any support on this project 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 sites that are active today in this project, and we are very hopeful that we will deliver this project.”

He commiserates with the families of workers that have died as a result of the security challenges at the project site and added that the government is committed to ensuring that it does all it can to provide more security personnel at the project site to guarantee the timely delivery of the project.

Detailing the progress of the project, Engr. Chigozie Obi, Oilserv Group Chief Technical Officer (GCTO) assured that there are 15 active welding sites in the area working full-time and Oilserv is employing more resources to ensure the completion of the AKK project on schedule.

Engr. Steve Nnorom, Project Manager, Oilserv Ltd explained that there are currently three schematics of the pipeline station installations which included Alpha, Brovo, and Chalie spread segments, that shows progress of the project. He said they were currently doing full auto welding, completed 73% of its mainline welding works and had done 222 kilo metres remaining 27 kilo metres of welding work to complete.

“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 spreads.” While noting that the project has been active and fully financed, he added that the Oilserv workforce has purely been 100% Nigerian workers.

It was a successful site-visit with the NNPC appreciating the Oilserv team for work done well so far and for doing everything possible to deliver the project on schedule.