The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited says it has so far spent over $1.1 billion on the ongoing construction of the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas Pipeline and Station project from its cash-flow.
The Group Chief Operating Officer of NNPCL, Malam Mele Kyari, made the revelation on Monday in Kogi State.
He spoke while touring some of the project sites in Kogi State with newsmen and other stakeholders.
Kyari was accompanied by some top officials of the NNPC Limited and Oilserv Limited (Pipelines and Facilities), the contractor of the project.
He 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.
He said: “So far, NNPC Limited has spent over $1.1billion on the project and to date none of the project activities are 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 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.”
The GCEO decried the fact that due to insecurity, it had lost some site workers, expressing 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 done with, the NNPCL could actually flow gas through the pipeline.
He said on completion, the pipeline would deliver two billon cubic feet of gas powering industries, power plants and creating gas-based industries.
He said the entire welding work would be completed by the third quarter of 2023.
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, Steve Nnorom, Project Manager, Oilserv Limited, explained that there were three schematic of the pipeline and station installations: Brovo, Chalie and Alpha, that showed progress of the project.
Nnorom said they were currently doing full auto welding, completed 73 per cent of its mainland welding works and had done 222 kilometres, remaining 27 kilometres of welding work to complete.
He said: “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.”
Nnorom, while noting that the project has been active and fully financed, said it has purely 100 per cent Nigerian workers.
