News Investigators/ The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) says it has so far spent over 1.1 billion dollars on the ongoing construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline and Station project from its cash-flow.
The NNPC Limited GCEO, Mele Kyari said this on Monday while touring some of its project sites in Kogi, with newsmen and other stakeholders.
Mr Kyari was accompanied by some top officials of the NNPC Limited and Oilserv Limited, (Pipelines and Facilities), the contractor of the project.
Mr Kyari said the company would continue to fund the massive project which it was delivering in phases and has been active even though it did not have third party finance for the project.
“So far, NNPC Ltd has funded over 1.1billion 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 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 decried the fact that due to insecurity, it had lost some site workers thereby expressed sadness over their demise and consoled their families whom he said the company shared in their grief.
He said 70 per cent of the welding work had been completed adding that once welding was completed, it could actually flow gas through the pipeline.
He said on completion, the pipeline would deliver two billon cubic feet of gas, powering industries, powering power plants and creating gas-based industries.
He said the entire welding work would be completed by the third quarter of 2023 then it would energise the pipeline.
Mr Kyari further said that the gas pipeline was projected to support power plants with a total of 3,645 Mega Watts, adding that it would soon begin construction of Abuja- Kaduna power plants in earnest.
Earlier, the Project Manager, Oilserv Ltd, Steve Nnorom explained that there were three schematic of the pipeline and station installations which included Bravo, Charlie and Alpha spread segment, that showed progress of the project.
He said they were currently doing full auto welding and had completed 73 per cent of its mainland welding works, adding that 222 kilometres has been covered with 27 kilometres of welding work remaining 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 spread,” he said.
Mr Nnorom, while noting that the project has been active and fully financed said 100 per cent workers on the project are Nigerian. (NAN)
