AfrOil: NNPC sees AKK gas pipeline launched in Q1-2023

Mele Kyari, the group managing director of Nigerian National Petroleum Co. (NNPC), expects the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) natural gas pipeline to begin operating in the first quarter of 2023.

According to a statement issued by his leading spokesman Garba Muhammad, Kyari told NNPC board members last week that upstream producers were on track to make sufficient volumes of gas available for AKK on time. This will allow the project to be launched on schedule, he said.

Emeka Okwuosa, the chairman of Oilserve, the Nigeria company serving as NNPC’s main contractor for work on Segment “A,” concurred. He said AKK would remain on schedule and that Oilserve’s project managers and labourers could finish the job on time.

Kyari also described the AKK link as a “signature project” of the administration of Nigeria’s President Muhammad Buhari. He urged Nigeria to take advantage of its status as the holder of Africa’s largest gas reserves and said the pipeline project might create thousands of new jobs.