Nigeria Targets Trans-Saharan, European Markets With $2.8 Billion Ajaokuta, Kaduna, Kano Gas Project

The Federal Government says it is targeting Trans-Saharan and European markets with the ongoing construction of the Ajaokuta, Kaduna, Kano Gas Pipeline, popularly known as AKK Gas Pipeline.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, told a forum of journalists that plan is to get the gas pipeline to Kano, then all the way to Algeria at the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline and then link up with the Algerian pipeline and then to Europe.

Sylva said that when completed, the gas pipeline would also serve as a development backbone along the Southern-Northern corridors of the country.

He said : “AKK gas pipeline is good for producers and the market because we have a lot of situations where gas is capped in the South and not produced because there is no market.

“But what we want to do now is to bring the gas across Nigeria, so that when you are now moving gas from South to North, all the people along that corridor can key into that pipeline.

“What that means is that people will have access to gas anywhere in Nigeria. It will also enable Nigerians to invest in a gas-based industry anywhere in Nigeria.

He added: This is also good for the producer because he now has incentives to produce more. Before now, the gas in the South was capped but with this backbone, anybody can produce and link up with the AKK pipeline.”

According to him, the construction of the AKK Gas Pipeline will eliminate gas flaring completely in the country as it will absorb the remaining eight per cent currently being flared.