The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Ibe Kachikwu has said the return of peace to the Niger Delta, coupled with the discovery of gas resources offshore Lagos will boost Nigeria’s gas supply to the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) project.
Kachikwu said this yesterday at the 17th Meeting of the Committee of Ministers of the West Africa Gas Pipeline (WAGP) Project in Abuja.
WAGP, the first regional natural gas transmission system, is a pipeline that supplies gas from Nigeria’s Niger Delta area to Benin, Togo and Ghana and is operated by the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAGPCo).
The 17th meeting which had representatives from the participating countries and WAGPCo, afforded the ministers the opportunity to further discuss issues pertaining to the progress made so far towards the realization of the aspirations which the WAGP was set to achieve.
“Nigeria will continue to play her part in seeing that we work together with the aspirations of the project to achieve a greater integration of the West African region,” Kachikwu said.
“The WAGP Project is being celebrated all over Africa today as the flagship project for the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). Therefore, this project should be sustained with our cooperation from all parties.”
On his part, the Managing Director of WAGPCo, Mr. Walter Perez, said irrespective of the fact that force majeure was yet to be lifted, WAGPCo had been able to upgrade its compressor which led to a growth in its output from 70 million British Thermal Unit (BTU) daily to 85m BTU per day in 2018.
“In addition, this upgrade has allowed us to be more consistent in delivering gas to our customers despite variations in pressure at Itoki (Lagos). With the imminent completion of critical infrastructure projects in Nigeria, it is our hope and prayer that the force majeure will be lifted,” Perez said.
He announced that Ghana had paid a significant portion of its legacy debt to WAGPCo and additional payments are currently being made.
“I am happy to report that additional payments are currently in process. However, more work is needed to retire the debt. To this end, we are encouraged by the assurances given by the ministry that the legacy debt will be fully retired in 2018,” he explained. Courtesy: Daily Trust.