Nigeria Provides More AKK Project Details

The Nigerian government has provided more details about the $2.7bn Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline,  following the cabinet’s approval of that project December 13.

Government spokesman Gara Shehu said December 17 that the AKK project will involve construction of a 40-inch-diameter pipeline across 614 km from Ajaokuta in central Nigeria, via the country’s capital Abuja and Kaduna, to Kano in northern Nigeria. He also spoke about a second project: to build the 40-inch-diameter, 30km Odidi to Warri gas pipeline expansion project.

The AKK and Odidi-Warri pipeline projects, says the government, aim to integrate respectively the northern and eastern parts of Nigeria.

"Gas pipeline infrastructure had been concentrated in the coastal areas and the north and the east had been left largely untouched by … the gas pipeline network,” he said, adding that contracts for pipelines and small-scale LNG terminals  to be set up at various points, further expanding gas’s reach across Nigeria. Contract financing arrangements have been adopted and the project sponsor, state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), and the federal government are expected to reach common terms with the contractors on how they would be repaid over a 15-year period.

"Although the loan repayment is expected from revenue accruing to from both existing and the expanding pipeline network, the NNPC and the federal government are expected to meet financial gaps and guarantee the return on net investment," Shehu added.

While the government talks of expanding gas's reach through small-scale LNG, the Nigerian Senate's gas committee is investigating whether an LNG investor has been unfairly treated by the power ministry.