Page 12 - AfrOil Week 37

AfrOil PIPELINES & TRANSPORT AfrOil

NNPC denies charges of graft on AKK pipe

NIGERIA NIGERIAN National Petroleum Corp. (NNPC) baseless information.”
has denied that the budget of its Ajaokuta-Ka- The BBP’s director, Alhaji Maman Ahmadu,
duna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline was inflated by was quoted in the press as saying that NNPC
$1.53bn. had followed due process in procuring pipes for
The national oil company (NOC) was AKK.
responding to an article by Nigerian daily The 614-km pipeline is due to deliver up
Point Blank News on September 7, which said to 56mn cubic metres per day of gas to power
the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP) had plants in the states of Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.
uncovered evidence of corruption. NNPC drove These stations are being built as part of Nige-
up pipe costs for the project from $513 to $3,000 ria’s programme for expanding the share of gas
per metre, it said. in its electricity mix. Construction had been
Point Blank said it had a copy of a report scheduled to begin in the first half of 2020, but
by BPP and published photographs of several did not start until early July because of coro-
pages, although no heading or page numbers navirus (COVID-19) related disruptions. The
were visible. It quoted the bureau as saying that engineering, procurement and construction
NNPC’s pipe contract was “a hastily compiled, (EPC) contractors picked for the pipeline were
tardy and unprofessional submission, which Nigeria’s Oilserv, Oando and Brentex Petroleum
is bereft of any significant engineering inputs, Services, and China’s First Highway Engineering
technical information and without considera- and China Petroleum Pipeline.
tion for the unit rates or the bill of quantities as China Export and Credit Insurance Corpo-
is usually expected in the review of such engi- ration (Sinosure) has pledged to underwrite up
neering projects.” to 85% of the pipeline’s cost, projected by NNPC
“We are also reliably informed that as at pres- to be $2.6bn. ™
ent date, there is still no detailed design, neither
are there technical specifications for the project,”
Point Blank quoted the BPP as saying.
These allegations are “false, baseless and
unfounded,” NNPC said in a statement, adding
it was considering legal action. The BPP itself
has denied the discovery of graft at the project.
The bureau judged the pipe costs to be rea-
sonable, NNPC said, noting that the project had
undergone “a transparent and open competitive
tender process” where the most competitive bids
were chosen.
“Approval of all relevant authorities was
obtained after an intense scrutiny by the vari-
ous agencies,” NNPC said. “This is a deliberate
attempt to mislead the Nigerian public with The AKK pipeline will be 614 km long (Image: Obor Invest)

Sonatrach hires contractors for pipe work

ALGERIA ALGERIA’S Sonatrach has handed out a raft of The work will create 3,000 jobs, Sonatrach
contracts for the construction for natural gas said, noting its support for local content use.
pipelines, LNG equipment supply and other Sonatrach also said it had enlisted Sarpi and
projects. Safir Group to work on development plans for
The national oil company (NOC) said on oilfields to the west of Touat. These fields will
September 8 it had awarded deals to domestic supply 6,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil to the
firms ENGCB, Sarpi, ENGTP, RNSC, Kanag- Adrar oil refinery by 2022.
haz and Cosider valued at DZD67bn ($520mn). Another contract was awarded to Cosider for
They are for the construction of 700 km of work on fire detection and anti-fire networks at
pipelines and networks to ship gas from fields its oil and gas facilities in Arzew. ENAC has also
in Algeria’s south-west to markets, it said. The been picked to supply, install and commission
pipelines will be capable of carrying 11mn cubic cathodic protection systems on pipeline from
metres per day of gas by 2022. Hassi R’Mel to Arzew.

P12 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 37 16•September•2020