Peter Uzoho
The Group Chairman of Oilserv Limited, Dr. Emeka Okwuosa, has stated that the $2.8 billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas pipeline, is positioned to help realise the long held dream of building the nation’s biggest domestic gas transmission infrastructure.
President Muhammadu Buhari will today flag off the construction of the 614 kilometer gas pipeline in Ajaokuta, Kogi State, conceived to provide the highly desired stimulus to domestic industrial growth.
The project will be delivered by a consortium of indigenous and international engineering firms including Oilserv Limited.
Okwuosa said the company was honoured to part of the historic AKK project and he welcomed Nigerians to witness the event.
The project will also promote the Nigerian Content Policy goals.
The president inaugurating the project would be turning to reality, some of the nation’s long term economic aspirations of boosting domestic energy infrastructure, deepening local gas market, creating industrial corridors with cleaner fuel and commercialising the country’s abundant gas resources.
According to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the gas infrastructure would significantly curb gas flaring in the Niger Delta and guarantee better air quality in the oil producing region.
Furthermore, 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 is set to break through after seven years of rigorous processes that morphed from policy conception through implementation strategy designs, master-plans and solid implementation programmes.
However, 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 (EPC) 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, after securing the EPC contract in April 2018.
Nigeria’s Presidency had confidently asserted 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.”
