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FG to construct longest gas pipeline

By on May 29, 2014

The Federal Government has announced plans to construct the longest gas pipeline in the country from Calabar through Ajaokuta to Kano.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, disclosed this on Tuesday at the opening of a three-day national conference on gas resources organised by the Senate Committee on Gas in Abuja.

A statement issued by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, quoted the minister to have said, “By the end of the year, we will be commencing, via Public-Private Partnership scheme, the nation’s longest pipeline from Calabar through Ajaokuta to Kano State.”

Alison-Madueke, who was represented by the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, stated that at present, the Federal Government was constructing the strategic East-West pipeline, while the Lagos end segment of the Escravos to Lagos Pipeline System was nearing completion.

She explained that almost 500 kilometres of new gas pipelines had been completed and inaugurated, including the doubling of the capacity of the EPLS between Escravos and Oben as well as the extension from Oben to Geregu and River Imo to Alaoji.

The minister said by the end of 2018, the backbone pipeline infrastructure for gas would have been delivered and this would conclude the initial phase of the over 2,500km of gas pipeline infrastructure development.

She said the government was strategising to leverage the full potential of gas to achieve massive impact on the economy and the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.

“We are focused on jumpstarting gas supply to enable usage in gas-to-power, gas-based industrialisation, compressed natural gas for transportation and commercial usage, cooking gas for domestic usage and regional pipeline for gas export,” Alison-Madueke said.

She stated that a domestic gas supply obligation regulation, mandating a certain amount of gas supply for the domestic market pending the full maturation of the market, had been introduced.

To boost investor confidence in natural gas in the country, she said the government had reviewed the contractual framework for gas through the development of standardised gas supply agreements.

According to Alison-Madueke, the use of natural gas instead of petrol has translated into significant savings for over 4,000 taxi drivers in Benin, who are already using the alternative energy source.

The minister also noted that the Federal Government’s efforts at eliminating gas flaring were recording significant impact as flare out rate had dropped from 25 per cent to 11 per cent of production.

“Many of the international oil companies are fast approaching full flare out as the gas obligation and infrastructure growth have all combined to enable utilisation of hitherto flared gas,” she added.

Meanwhile, Yakubu in his address put the country’s current gas production at about 8.5 billion cubic feet per day.

He explained that of the total production, 3.5bcf/d (41 per cent) was exported; 2.3bcf/d (28 per cent) consumed domestically for power and industries; 1.2bcf/d (15 per cent) used in the upstream for gas re-injection; while the balance of 0.8bcf/d (10 per cent) was flared.

 

 

[Punch]