PHOTO
The second phase of the front-end engineering and design (FEED) study on the 5,000 km Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline project is 70 percent complete, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Group CEO Mele Kyari said.
The tendering processes for the surveys, environmental and social impact assessment and land acquisition and resettlement policy framework are on track, The Vanguard newspaper reported, citing the top executive.
Four more countries - Benin, Guinea, Liberia and Ivory Coast - signed up for the estimated $25 billion pan-African project, taking the total number of countries involved to 13, NNPC said in a related statement.
Ttripartite MOUs were respectively signed between the NNPC and the Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM) of Morocco on one hand, and the Société Nationale des Opérations Pétrolières of Cote d’Ivoire (PETROCI), the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), the Société Nationale des Hydrocarbures of Benin (SNH-Benin), and the Société Nationale des Pétroles of the Republic of Guinea (SONAP) on the other.
The other countries involved in the project are Ghana, Senegal, Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, Togo and Mauritania.
When fully operational, the pipeline project is expected to deliver about four billion cubic feet of gas daily.
(Writing by P Deol; Editing by Anoop Menon)
