Page 7 - AfrOil Week 16 2022

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

AKK pipeline construction site, shown on April 14 (Photo: Twitter/@NNPCgroup)

He also urged Nigeria to take advantage of strategy.
its status as the holder of Africa’s largest gas NNPC and its contractors began building
reserves and said that the AKK project might the pipeline along a 614-km route that runs
create thousands of new jobs. northward from the left bank of the Niger river
According to previous reports, the pipeline in Kogi State to the capital city of Kano State in
is slated to pump gas from fields in the southern June 2020.
part of the country to new domestic customers, When finished, the pipe will have a name-
including thermal power plants (TPPs) with a plate capacity of 99.11mn cubic metres per day
combined generating capacity of 3,600 MW of gas, or approximately 36.175bn cubic metres
and petrochemical producers that use gas as per year. Initially, throughput will amount to
feedstock. As such, it is a key component of the around 56.64 mcm per day, or around 20.67
Nigerian government’s domestic gasification bcm per year. ™

INVESTMENT
Greenpeace decries DRC’s decision to

auction off 16 blocks in licensing round

DEM. REP. OF CONGO GREENPEACE International issued a state- fact that the ministry’s plan would authorise
ment on April 14 criticising the government of exploration work in a number of environmen-
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for tally sensitive areas.
its decision to approve the Ministry of Hydro- Out of the 16 blocks slated for inclusion in
carbons’ plan to auction off 14 blocks that may the sale, it noted, nine are located within Cuvette
contain crude oil and natural gas. Centrale, an ecosystem covered by wetlands and
In the statement, the non-governmental forests that lies at the centre of the Congo Basin.
organisation (NGO) noted that the DRC’s coun- This region is known for its biodiversity and
cil of ministers had taken a decision at a meeting contains peatlands.
on April 8 to go forward with the auctions, as Irene Wabiwa Betoko, Greenpeace Afri-
recommended in the plans put forward in 2021 ca’s international project leader for the Congo
by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons. It urged the Basin forest, described the DRC government’s
council to revoke that decision at its next weekly decision to offer the blocks up to investors as
meeting on April 15 and drew attention to the calamitous.

Week 16 20•April•2022 www. NEWSBASE .com P7