The Group Chief Executive Officer, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mele Kyari, on Thursday, announced that the NNPCL would be constructing another international gas pipeline worth about $8bn.
NNPCL and its partners are currently working on the construction of the $25bn Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline that is to supply gas from Nigeria to about 11 African countries and transport same from Morocco to Europe.
Speaking during a panel session at the ongoing 8th Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries International Seminar in Vienna Austria, Kyari stated that the proposed $8bn pipeline would go through Niger Republic to Algeria and then to Europe.
He disclosed this in a video clip made available to our correspondent by the NNPCL in Abuja. Kyari participated in a roundtable conversation at the seminar titled “Eradicating Energy Poverty.”
He said,
“We are building a $25bn pipeline from Nigeria to Morroco through 11 West African countries. There’s another pipeline we are planning to build through Niger Republic, and through Algeria into Europe also, and the potential is between $7bn to $8bn.
“We are also expanding our current LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) facility with another train. And, of course, what that does is that it doubles the capacity of the current facility and this is going to be made available to the market”.
The NNPC helmsman said there were many other gas projects being handled by the oil company to further deepen the penetration of gas in Nigeria and other nations.
Last month, it was reported that Nigeria, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Benin, and Guinea signed four Memoranda of Understanding for the construction of the $25bn Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline Project.
The participating nations signed the MoU at the Abuja headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States, as the project’s steering committee convened at the ECOWAS office to discuss the progress of the project and its strategic direction.
Four MoUs were signed and the tripartite agreements were signed between the NNPCL and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines of Morocco on one hand, and the Société Nationale des Opérations Pétrolières of Cote d’Ivoire, the National Oil Company of Liberia, the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures of Benin, and the Société Nationale des Pétroles of the Republic of Guinea on the other hand.
The MoUs, similar to those signed with ECOWAS on September 15, 2022, Mauritania and Senegal on October 15, 2022, and The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Ghana on December 5, 2022, reaffirmed the commitment of the parties to the strategic project.
Once completed, the Nigeria-Morocco pipeline project will enhance the monetization of the natural gas resources of the affected African countries and also offer a new alternative export route to Europe.
In another development, the NNPCL confirmed in a tweet on Thursday that no fuel subsidy had been paid to any oil marketer since 2016.
This confirms series of reports by our correspondent that the NNPCL had been subsidizing petrol for several years, shouldering the cost on its own.
“No petrol subsidy payments made to marketers since January 2016.
“NNPC Ltd to reconcile subsidy deductions with the federation,” the company stated.