The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd has said the new completion date of the $700 million Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben gas pipeline project, popularly called OB3, is now August.
The Federal Government had in February, declared that the project which commenced in 2016, would be completed by March this year, a project that
However, spokesperson of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement, said the the oil firm declared that the project would be completed in August.
According to the statement, Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC, Mele Kyari, confirmed this during an inspection tour of the OB3 pipeline River Niger Crossing operation at Aboh, Delta State, on Saturday.
By design, the OB3 gas pipeline is the interconnector which links the Eastern gas pipeline network to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System in the West and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline in the North.
The River Niger Crossing operation has been the major impediment to the completion of the strategic OB3 gas pipeline for over three years, NNPC stated.
This, it said, was due to the failure of the various technologies deployed to achieve the construction of the 48-inch pipe under the river bed between Ndoni in Rivers State and Aboh in Delta State.
It, however, noted that with the adoption of the Micro-Tunnelling/Direct Pipe Installation technology, the new contractors, Messrs HDD Thailand/Enikkom and Tunnelling Services Group (TSG), were making a headway with about 860mout of the 1,800m achieved so far.
Speaking after the inspection tour, Kyari was quoted as having expressed delight at the breakthrough, which signalled the imminent completion of the project.
On the significance of the project, he said, “Once completed, we will see about 2.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas coming into our network. We believe that this will give our country a breathing space of demand, I am sure we can catch up with that kind of demand in the next one and a half years. We are happy that this will give us the platform to unleash the gas revolution in our country.”
Also speaking on the project during the tour, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpoexpressed satisfaction with the pace of work.
