Page 6 - AfrOil Week 15 2021

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

Senegal secures funding, support

for national gas pipeline plan

SENEGAL SENEGAL’S sovereign wealth fund, Fonds Sou- Zubairu noted that the accord would benefit
verain d’Investissements Stratégiques (FON- Senegal in other ways, saying: “This kind of pro-
SIS), and the state natural gas concern, Senegal ject speeds up the energy transition and creates
Gas Network (SGN), have secured financing jobs for young people. AFC is ready to further
and support for the government’s plan to estab- support SGN with a contribution of $245mn
lish a domestic gas pipeline network. and to collaborate with FONSIS on other dig-
FONSIS unveiled the plan last week, say- italisation and infrastructure development
ing that it had joined with SGN in signing an projects.”
agreement with Africa Finance Corp. (AFC), Meanwhile, Sarr highlighted AFC’s previous
a pan-African multi-lateral institution that experience with midstream projects. “AFC has
finances development projects, and UK-based already built pipelines,” he said. “Its expertise
West African Energy (WAE). The signing cer- will make it possible to go [forward] quickly
emony was attended by FONSIS’ managing and well in order to deliver the pipeline network
director Papa Demba Diallo, AFC president on time. This will further diversify [Senegal’s]
and CEO Samaila Zubairu and WAE’s manag- energy sources and benefit from cleaner and
ing director, Samuel Amete Sarr. Also present more economical energy to strengthen business
was Amadou Wadda, AFC’s senior director for competitiveness.” ™
project development and technical solutions.
According to press reports, the agreement
calls for AFC to provide $245mn in funding
for SGN, which was formed in 2019 by Sene-
gal’s national oil company (NOC) Petrosen and
national power provider Senelec. SGN intends
to use the funding to begin the process of devel-
oping and establishing a pipeline network capa-
ble of transporting gas from production sites to
the domestic market. This process will encom-
pass a variety of activities, including the iden-
tification of suitable partners and consultants,
front-end engineering and design (FEED) work
and efforts to secure funding for the construc-
tion of the pipeline network.
Diallo said the deal was sure to benefit the
country as it worked to optimise the develop-
ment of its gas resources. The agreement “is a
major step in the implementation of Senegal’s
gas ecosystem and an illustration of the co-op-
eration that a state can develop through its sov-
ereign fund with national and African private
partners,” he stated. Senegal’s offshore zone is rich in gas (Image: Kosmos Energy)

NNPC using rail lines to transport

sections of pipe for AKK project

NIGERIA NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) Mele Kyari, the group managing director of
has begun using rail lines to deliver sections of the national oil company (NOC), said last week
pipe to construction sites for work on the Ajao- that the company had completed its first ship-
kuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) natural gas pipeline. ment of pipes from Warri to Itakpe on April 8.

P6 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 15 14•April•2021