President Muhammadu Buhari has said the $2.8billion Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano AKK natural gas pipeline project, is currently at 43 per cent completion.
The president also said the actualisation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021 was his administration's biggest achievement in the energy sector.
Buhari spoke in Abuja at the opening ceremony of the 6th edition of the Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) theme: Global perspectives for a sustainable future".
The AKK project, when completed, is expected to transport up to 3500 million cubic feet of gas daily from various gas gathering projects, help to generate 3.6 gigawatts of power and support gas-based industries along the route.
He said: "At present, the 614-kilometre gas pipeline is 43 per cent completed."
President Buhari, who was represented by the secretary to the government of the federation, Mr Boss Mustapha, said the passage of the two decades old bill into law was revolutionary as," for decades, we were told that because of the various vested interests, it would be near impossible to pass the Bill. But we made it happen".
According to him, after the enactment of the Act, his administration wasted no time in implementing some critical aspects of the provisions of the Act.
"We did not rest on our oars. With the enactment of that, we moved swiftly into action scrapping the existing agencies or replacing them with new regulators.
"To this end, existing agencies were scrapped and replaced with new regulators; the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) while the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) was transformed into a Limited Liability Company-the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) which is poised to become the biggest, most capitalised and most profitable company in Africa," he said.
Earlier, the group chief executive officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari said the Company is also investing heavily in critical gas infrastructure such as the Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline and the OB3 gas interconnector to support 5 Bscf/d of domestic gas utilization including 5 GW of power generation capacity by developing power plant projects along the AKK pipeline corridor and across the country to complement existing ones.
For the gas export market, he said the ongoing NLNG Train 7 will expand Nigeria's LNG production capacity to about 30 million tons per annum (30 MTPA).
"This is in addition to the planned Nigerian Morocco and the Trans Sahara Gas Pipeline projects which will supply gas to sub-regional African countries and subsequently Europe," he said.
The President recounted that his administration recorded giant strides in the natural gas sector. "The agenda was gas revolution. We pushed for the diversification of Nigeria's economy and drive Industrialization through domestic gas utilization", he stated.
Buhari listed other landmark initiatives launched by his government to include; National Gas Transportation Network code (NGTNC), Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP), AKK natural gas pipeline project among others.
In his remarks at the ceremony, the permanent secretary, Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Ambassador Gabriel Tanimu Aduda, noted that the summit provided a unique opportunity for the coming together of stakeholders with a view to sharing knowledge and insights, and to discuss the challenges and opportunities that plague the energy industry globally.
"We are living in an era of rapid change, with new technologies, shifting geopolitical realities, and changing global energy demands",
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Aduda noted that, it was clear that energy played a critical role in shaping the world.
He opined that, Nigeria is endowed with considerable deposits of oil and gas resources which had over the years played a very important role in the country's development, adding that the government was working to ensure that the energy sector remained a key driver of economic growth and social progress.
"We are also committed to a sustainable energy future, and we are investing in renewable energy, energy efficiency, and clean technologies. We believe that by working together, we can build a more resilient, sustainable, and equitable energy future for all, he stated.
There were goodwill messages from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), African Petroleum Producers' Organization (APPO), Gas Exporting Countries Forum (GECF), Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG), Chevron Nigeria Ltd, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) among others.
