President Muhammadu Buhari will, on Tuesday, finally flag off the construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, pipeline, meant to realise the long-held dream of building the nation’s biggest domestic gas transmission infrastructure.
Group Chairman, Engr. Emeka Okwuosa, said he was honoured that Oilserv Limited is part of the historic AKK project, and welcome Nigerians to witness the special moment when President Muhammadu Buhari flags off the long-awaited project.
He noted that the 614-kilometre gas pipeline conceived to provide the highly-desired stimulus to domestic industrial growth, will be delivered by a consortium of indigenous and international engineering firms and the project will also signal the finest hour so far for the Nigerian Content Policy goals.
He added that the President, by the flag-off of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline at Ajaokuta, Kogi State, would be turning to reality some of the nation’s long term economic aspirations of boosting domestic energy infrastructure, deepening the local gas market, creating industrial corridors with cleaner fuel, and commercialising the country’s abundant gas resources.
The project, according to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, will significantly curb gas flaring in the Niger Delta and guarantee better air quality in the oil-producing region.
The corporation said: “The pipeline, which was conceived to connect demand from the northern part of the country with supply from the south would be the biggest infrastructure development in the country’s recent history.
“It will also mark a significant shift in the nation’s energy policy; from revenue targeted export programmes to development-focused domestic supply programmes.
“Significantly, the $2.8 billion project will breakthrough today, after seven years of rigorous processes that morphed from policy conception through implementation strategy designs, master-plans and solid implementation programmes.
“The biggest value to the economy is the participation of indigenous engineering firms led by pipeline giant, Oilserv Limited, in the delivery of some of the phases of the project.
“The company has successfully delivered over 17 similar challenging projects in the country, including the engineering, procurement and construction of the 67-kilometre Obiafu/Obrikom to Oben (OB3) 48-inch diameter gas transmission pipeline system.
The Oilserv consortium is slated to deliver the first 200-kilometre phase of the AKK pipeline, which covers the section between Ajaokuta and Abuja, in April 2018.”
Nigeria’s Presidency had confidently said that the AKK “pipeline project is itself a section of an ambitious pipeline project to supply gas to Europe through the proposed Trans-Sahara Gas Pipeline (TSGP) and Nigeria Morocco Gas Pipelines.”
