Kaduna to support $2.8b AKK pipeline project

• NNPC Eyes 5bscf/D Increase In Domestic Gas, Support Agric Sector
The Kaduna State Government would join forces with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to ensure the success of the $2.8 billion Abuja-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project.

Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, declared his support while receiving the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Maikanti Baru, at the government house in Kaduna yesterday, saying the state is banking on the project to open up investment opportunities in the state. He was quoted in a statement endorsed by spokesman for NNPC, Ndu Ughamalu saying that the people of Kaduna were happy because the project would support the state’s “huge power ambitions”.

“Already, we have gone ahead by signing a MoU with OCIP of Morocco for the development of a fertiliser plant and as soon as the gas is here from the pipeline project, it will open up many possibilities”.

El-Rufai also declared that the state would welcome the emergence of more Independent Power Plants (IPPs) and was ready to provide land to achieve that, calling on the NNPC to build more fuel retail outlets within Kaduna State, assuring that his administration would provide the much needed incentives, including land to make that a reality.

Meanwhile, Baru said NNPC was keen on executing other projects that would trigger industrialisation and create jobs for the nation’s teeming population. He noted that NNPC would support ongoing initiative by the Federal Government to diversify the nation’s economy through agriculture by providing much needed fulcrum for the attainment of a mutually beneficial relationship between agriculture and industries.

The NNPC GMD, in a presentation entitled, consolidating the Interface between Industry and Agriculture for Nigeria’s Sustainable Development –the Role of NNPC, listed some of the achievements of the NNPC in this regard. These achievements, the GMD noted, included the provision of gas to power industries as captured in the 614km Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano Pipeline (AKK) Project which process of award began in July 2017 and conceived as an integral part of the Trans Nigeria Gas Project. He said on completion, the AKK would deliver gas to Abuja, Kaduna and Kano Power Plants to power factories in the North and the National Grid. Baru added that in order to bridge the medium term domestic gas supply deficit by 2020, seven Critical Gas Development Projects (7CGDPs) had also been identified, saying that the desired outcome of this initiative would boost domestic gas supply from about 1.5bscf/d to 5bscf/d with a corresponding 500 per cent increase in power generation to buoy capacity utilization of industries.

He disclosed that the 7CGDPs were at different stages of development with Assa North-Ohaji South (ANOH) project ahead of others, saying the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) for facilities and pipelines for ANOH had been completed with the Final Investment Decision (FID) for the project taken in December 2018.