The Nigerian Nationwide Petroleum Firm Restricted (NNPC) has deployed further subcontractors to expedite the completion of mainline works on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gasoline pipeline and fast-track the venture’s completion.
In its newest ‘Month-to-month Report Abstract’ for July 2025, the nationwide oil agency stated the pipeline is presently 86 per cent accomplished.
“Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gasoline Pipeline: Further subcontractors deployed to expedite completion of mainline works and fast-track venture completion,” the NNPC stated within the report.
The NNPC set a brand new goal of November 2025 for the mechanical completion of the $2.8 billion AKK Gasoline Pipeline venture after lacking a minimum of three earlier deadlines. The brand new deadline was introduced following the pipeline’s profitable crossing of the River Niger, executed by one of many key contractors, Oilserv Restricted.
On June 26, Oilserv Restricted, the venture contractor, stated the $2.8 million AKK gasoline pipeline venture had crossed the River Niger after years of setbacks attributable to its “troublesome terrain”.
4 days later, Oilserv stated the pipeline is predicted to realize mechanical completion by the tip of 2025.
In July, the NNPC’s group CEO, Bayo Ojulari, stated the $2.8 billion AKK gasoline pipeline venture would revive industries in northern Nigeria.
The 614-kilometre AKK pipeline, a 40-inch diameter high-pressure gasoline transmission system, goals to revolutionise Nigeria’s gasoline provide by delivering 2.2 billion normal cubic toes of gasoline per day to energy crops and industries in Abuja, Kaduna, and Kano. The pipeline can be anticipated to stimulate northern Nigeria’s financial revitalisation and industrial development.
Oilserv, an indigenous Nigerian power companies firm, is answerable for setting up half of the pipeline, masking round 303 kilometres from Ajaokuta to the Kaduna State-Niger State border, whereas Brentex Building Restricted is dealing with the rest to Kano.
A serious technical hurdle was the crossing of the River Niger, the longest and most advanced of the seven essential river crossings on the route. This was achieved utilizing horizontal directional drilling, a trenchless method important for preserving delicate ecosystems and guaranteeing pipeline integrity. The crossing marked a pivotal second within the venture, de-risking the pipeline’s completion path.
Regardless of challenges associated to rugged rock terrain requiring in depth blasting, Oilserv is on monitor to finish its section by the tip of 2025.
Ojulari, emphasised the strategic significance of the AKK pipeline, describing it as a milestone in Nigeria’s journey towards power safety, financial improvement, and industrial resilience.
He affirmed that the pipeline’s mechanical completion—that means all mechanical work, together with set up and welding, is completed—must be achieved by November 30, 2025, with full operational commissioning anticipated to comply with in 2026.
Crossing the River Niger, greater than two kilometres huge on the crossing web site, proved particularly formidable. The chairman of Oilserv, Dr Emeka Okwuosa, stated crossing the Niger with a 40-inch pipeline was one of many best challenges.
Okwuosa stated: “We couldn’t use dredging or open-cut strategies due to environmental considerations. As an alternative, we deployed horizontal directional drilling beneath the riverbed, very like what was achieved with the Channel Tunnel, to guard the river and the communities that rely upon it.”
An analogous HDD method was used to cross the Pi River in Niger State, minimising impacts on ecosystems and native livelihoods. But even away from river techniques, the AKK route via Kogi State, for instance, has pressured Oilserv to blast via laborious rock to bury pipes to satisfy security codes.
Safety threats have posed an equally stiff problem. Elements of North Central Nigeria have seen repeated assaults on staff, together with a three-month suspension of operations after kidnappings, in addition to violence round Shiroro that pressured renewed safety interventions.
“We’ve got misplaced colleagues to those incidents,” Dr Okwuosa acknowledged, including, “That adjustments how you’re employed. You possibly can now not begin at 6 a.m. and go till nightfall. Now you will need to look ahead to the safety forces to clear the positioning each morning and return earlier than dusk.”
