President Muhammadu Buhari’s proposed official visit to China in September will be greeted with all agreements on the 618 kilometres AKK Pipeline Project.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) says the agreement would involve the project team – Bank of China and SINASURE.
NNPC has directed officials to expedite action on all the relevant agreements for signing during Buhari’s stay in China to attend the meeting of the Forum on Africa-China Cooperation.
The corporation has restated its commitment to actualizing the AKK project as approved and in line with the Federal Government’s desire to improve the supply of gas nationwide, thereby enhancing power generation, economic growth and employment opportunities.
The state oil firm emphasized that the execution of the strategic Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano, AKK, gas pipeline project is progressing under the original concept of 100 percent contractor financing model.
NNPC further clarified that the amount spent for the early works shall be recovered immediately the loans disbursement starts and no part of tariff shall be spent on the project until the end of the loan moratorium period.
It said the gas pipeline project is progressing under the original concept of 100 per cent contractor financing model.
The spokesman of the corporation, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, on Tuesday in Abuja said that the contractor finance arrangement was still intact noting that the Engineering Procurement Construction (EPC) contractors and possible lenders were currently in Dubai to discuss the financing terms.
Commenting on the `proceed of gas Tariffs’, he said that the application of revenue generated from the tariff would be purely for loan repayment since the project financing was “Contractor finance”.
‘’We wish to further clarify that part of the approvals obtained from the Federal Government is to fund the implementation of the project front-end activities tagged “Early Works” in order to continue to move the project forward pending the conclusion of the financing negotiations,’’ the Corporation explained
It further clarified that the amount spent for the early works would be recovered immediately the loans disbursement starts adding that no part of tariff would be spent on the project until the end of the loan moratorium period.
The Corporation restated its commitment to actualizing the AKK project as approved and in line with the Federal Government’s desire to improve the supply of gas nationwide.
This, it said, would thereby enhance power generation, economic growth and employment opportunities.
