OB3 gas pipeline to be completed August – NNPC

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) on Saturday said the Obiafu/Obrikom/Oben (OB3) gas pipeline will be completed by August.

Olufemi Soneye, the chief corporate communications officer of NNPC Ltd, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday.

Mr Soneye said the Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC Ltd, Mele Kyari, disclosed this during an inspection tour of the OB3 pipeline River Niger crossing operation at Aboh, Delta State, on Saturday.

“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,” Mr Kyari said.

“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 half years. We are happy that this will give us the platform to unleash the gas revolution in our country.”

The $700 million OB3 gas pipeline project being built by NNPC Ltd has been under construction for years and has missed several deadlines.

In December 2016, reports said it was 80 per cent completed.

The pipeline was initially intended to be completed by the end of 2017 but technical challenges, including horizontal drilling under major rivers, complicated work, according to reports.

In 2018 it was reported that rain and flooding delayed the construction of the pipeline, and that the new expected date of completion was second quarter 2019.

Since then, other factors like the Covid-19 pandemic and general slowdown due to changes in contracting agreements, have been blamed for the inability of the project to come onstream.

In February, the Nigerian government said the gas pipeline would be completed by March 2024.

On Saturday, NNPC Ltd said it is set to deliver the gas pipeline project in yet another major step towards boosting nationwide gas supply to drive industrialisation and economic growth.

Also speaking on the project, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas) Ekperikpe Ekpo, expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the OB3 River Niger crossing operation, describing it as “Renewed Hope at work.”

“I was here last year and I saw the work that was going on. There was a promise that it would be completed by December last year. I took it with a doubt. But today, from what I can see, I am confident that by July or August it will be completed and it will be commissioned by the President,” Mr Ekpo said.

On her part, the Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said she was looking forward to the completion of the project having been assured by the technical team that the right technology has been found to resolve the complex challenges of the River Niger crossing.

“As the minister and other speakers have said, we are looking forward to having this project deliver prosperity to Nigerians in the form of electricity and other areas,” she said.

The Managing Director of Tunnel Service Group (TSG), one of the contractors for the project, Ingo Justen, who was present to supervise the project, according to the statement, expressed confidence that the current technology being applied in the execution of the project would lead to its speedy conclusion.

The gas pipeline

By design, the OB3 gas pipeline, according to NNPC Ltd, is the inter-connector which links the Eastern gas pipeline network to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) in the West and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Pipeline in the North.

The NNPC Ltd said the River Niger crossing operation had been the major impediment to the completion of the strategic OB3 gas pipeline for over three years 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.

However, with the adoption of the Micro-Tunnelling/Direct Pipe Installation technology, the national oil company said the new contractors, Messrs HDD Thailand/Enikkom and Tunnelling Services Group (TSG), are making progress, with about 860 metres out of the 1,800 metres achieved so far.