The delivery date for the completion of the $700m Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben gas pipeline project, popularly called OB3, has been shifted from March 2024 to August, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited announced its readiness to complete the facility.
On February 28, 2024, it was reported that the Federal Government had declared that the project would be completed in March this year, a project that commenced in 2016.
It announced this in February through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpo, at the 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, where the minister described the OB3 gas pipeline as one of the biggest gas transmission systems in both Nigeria and Africa.
“I am highly elated to announce that going by the contractor estimates, the OB3 pipeline will be completed by March 2024 and the 42” 127km pipeline will supply 2BCF (two billion standard cubic feet) per day,” Ekpo had stated.
But in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the spokesperson of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, the oil firm declared that the project would be completed in August.
The 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, according to the statement.
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 expressed delight at the breakthrough, which signalled the imminent completion of the project.
He was quoted as saying, “This is a major project of monumental value to our country. What this means is that this is the only way we can deliver the gas revolution. I am very happy and convinced that, latest by the middle of August, we will complete this project. I have been assured of that by the project team.”
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, Ekpo expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the OB3 River Niger Crossing operation.
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