Chinese banks have made commitments to bring in as much money needed to finance oil and gas investments in Nigeria, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Maikanti Baru has said.
Baru disclosed this when a delegation of the Nigerian Gas Association (NGA) led by its President, Engr. Dada Thomas paid him a courtesy visit in Abuja.
A statement on Friday by NNPC spokesman Ndu Ughamadu said the GMD received the commitment from the Chinese banks at a recent meeting in London where for the first time, the Chinese contributed $250m towards a Nigerian gas project.
“If the Chinese tell you that they are going to do it, definitely they will do it and we will give them a run for their money,” Baru said in the statement.
The NNPC helmsman also unveiled plans by the corporation to expand gas generation and distribution nationwide to 10 Gigawatts (GW) by 2020.
The GMD said the current efforts to connect the eastern part of the country, where there are a lot of gas reserves, with the west, where high consumption demand exists, demonstrated NNPC’s readiness to impact positively on the power sector.
Dr. Baru stated that a lot has been achieved in the contracting process of the $2.7billion Ajaokuta-Abuja-Kaduna-Kano pipeline project, dubbed AKK Pipeline Project.
He explained that the feat recorded in the project would bring to the fore, a new dimension in gas projects execution in the country.
He said another project that would increase gas consumption in the country was the Ogidigben Gas Industrial City project, on which he said, NNPC was committed to seeing it come to fruition.
Speaking during the visit, NGA President, Engr. Dada Thomas applauded the GMD for the new alternative funding recently signed with Shell and Chevron to the tune of $1.78 billion, the Clearing of $400million debt in April, the progress being made on the Elf 2loop lines and the OB3 gas project, one of the most critical gas pipelines in the country.
Press release