Ike amos
06 April 2018, Sweetcrude, Abuja — The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Friday, signed two contracts with a consortium of indigenous and Chinese companies for the engineering, procurement, construction, commissioning and financing for Lots 1&3 of the 40inch by 614km Ajaokuta – Kaduna – Kano gas pipeline and stations, under a 100 percent contractor financing model.
The NNPC, in a statement in Abuja, said under the terms of contract, Lot 1 with total length of 40inch x 200km stretching from Ajaokuta to Abuja Terminal Gas Station was awarded to the OilServe/Oando Consortium, while Lot 3 which runs from Kaduna Terminal Gas Station (TGS) to Kano TGS with total length of 40inch x 221km was awarded to the Brentex/China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau (CPP) Consortium.
The NNPC said it is envisaged that contract agreement for Lot 3 which covers 40inch x 193km stretching from Abuja to Kaduna would be executed in the weeks ahead.
Speaking on the agreements with the firm, Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru, said the AKK Gas pipeline was a section of Trans-Nigerian Gas Pipeline under the gas infrastructure blueprint designed to enable the industrialization of the Eastern and Northern parts of Nigeria.
He said the project would also enable connectivity between the East, West, and North, which is currently non-existent.
Baru noted that the AKK section has suffered setbacks due to scarce resources for government to fully finance the project, hence the adoption of the contractor financing model.
“The two other pipelines, the OB3 & ELPs 2 in the Gas Master Plan blueprint, are currently at various stages of completion and are being financed directly by the Federal Government,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of the Oilserve/Oando Consortium, Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, Chairman of Oilserve Limited, expressed gratitude to the Federal Government and the NNPC for providing the opportunities for indigenous companies to flourish in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry.
He said the decision to award Lot 1 of the AKK project to an indigenous consortium speaks volume of government’s resolve to grow and encourage the attainment of the ideals of local content philosophy.
Also speaking, Mr. Abubakar Nuhu, Vice- Chairman of Brentex Nigeria Limited, said the Brentex-CPP Consortium would rely mainly on the acclaimed pedigree and global expertise of CPP in pipeline construction to deliver a world class project.
The NNPC explained that the process for the award of the AKK project teed-off in July 2013 with the advertisement for tenders published by the NNPC in major national newspapers.
According to the NNPC, after a painstaking technical and commercial evaluation process, the Federal Executive Council at its 46th meeting on 13th December 2017 approved the contract valued at over $2.8 billion.
