Governor Abdullahi Sule has said that Nasarawa State can not afford not to link up with the AKK gas pipeline, especially that the state looks to emulate similar feat in Ogun State, with Shagamu now a heaven for Chinese investors.

Governor Sule made this known while being presented with the Nasarawa State Gas MasterPlan Feasibility Study, driven by Gas Aggregator Company Nigeria Ltd (GACN), Bekos Energy and Axxela Ltd at the Governor’s Lodge in Abuja on Thursday.

According to the Governor, though the AKK pipeline project is coming onboard on stages, Nasarawa State with its ever emerging potentials can ill afford not to take advantage of the gas distribution project.

He was particularly excited that the Nasarawa State Gas Masterplan is being driven by renowned industry giants, Gas Agregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) in partnership with Axxela Ltd, the pioneer private sector-led developer of natural gas distribution in Nigeria. Axxela is the company handling the expansion and distribution of gas in greater Lagos area, including Ikeja, Apapa, Victoria Island and Oshodi.

Drawing from his experience from the Dangote Sugar, as well as his recent visit to Shagamu in Ogun State, Governor Sule said Nasarawa can not afford to be outside the AKK.

“I think for now, Nasarawa can not even afford to be outside this AKK arrangement. Because even if the State Government will be the only partner to get involved in this, we have to do this because that is the only way we can address challenges of power to drive our industrialization agenda.

“The 10 megawatt generation that we are talking about is owned by Ogun State government. That is why we are having all these Chinese companies going there. In the past, the T-line was in Shagamu, Ogun State but the biggest beneficiary was Lagos. Because they were teeing from Shagamu and taking it to Ikeja-Apapa and Oshodi and all those areas. But now Ogun State is reaping the benefits. I think that is the way we would go in this,” he stated.

He emphasized that his administration is preparing towards full utilisation of the AKK gas pipeline, particularly that President Ahmed Bola Tinubu truly believes in the project.

He added that, with the influx of investors into the state, Nasarawa is continously witnessing more potential for gas off takers.

“The potentials continue to get bigger in Nasarawa State. We are looking at more and more companies. We have about three companies right now that are yearning for gas, mining companies using diesel. They are not even having the opportunity to use LPFO. They are going to be captive power users. We can also use the opportunity of that line for the same fertilizer that you are talking about. I am happy with the Ts of the line. In Akwanga, there is nobody that will be using gas, but we will be happy to have gas in Akwanga. But in the Toto area, the Nasarawa area, Udege especially, with Udege being the centre because of the mining companies that are coming. Kokona is also going to work,” he added.

The Governor was optimistic that the AKK gas project would afford mining companies in Nasarawa State to process their products instead of taking the raw lithium to Shagamu for processing mostly because of the availability of power there.

“I went to Shagamu recently. They have a company that keeps taking the raw lithium from Nasarawa. I saw the number of Chinese companies in Shagamu. It was unbelievable. In fact, Shagamu is getting ready to compete, if not bigger than Ikeja. This is what is happening there. I tried to find out why. And there is only one reason. Power. There is no other reason. Because the guy was telling me how do we take raw materials with the logistics all the way to Shagamu? If we have power in Nasarawa, we won’t even take the materials anywhere. We will save that logistics. We save their roads, and we save the risks on the line. You save all the pilferage of your material,” he said.

He therefore restated the commitment of his administration to exploit the opportunities provided by the AKK gas pipeline project.

“I think that is the way we would go in this. I can’t wait to see the take-off. We are interested in seeing this project take off,” he said.

Governor Sule however pointed out that the AKK project will only be realised when gas begins to flow in the pipelines that is expected to be completed technically by the end of this year.

“I am not worried about the fact that we started this journey in 2021. I do know that this is a development that will come depending on another development. Until the AKK is finished, until the investors believe in the AKK and the investors and put gas into the gas line, nothing of this is coming. But it is good for us to be prepared for that day,” he said.

He commended the GACN and Axxela for the progress so far recorded, calling for further stakeholder engagement involving major developers such as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).

Presenting the Nasarawa State Gas MasterPlan feasibility study, Chijioke Uzoho, MD, GACN Ltd, said they were drawn to Nasarawa because of the great potentials of the state particularly in solid minerals and mining that is energy intensive.

“One of the reasons why we came to Nasarawa and we did see how the AKK will go pass Nasarawa being proximal to the AKK corridor and does not benefit. The idea was to say how do we detour this infrastructure into Nasarawa to ensure they are leveraging properly on it. Noting that Nasarawa is massively blessed with minerals resources, in the future you will be energy intensive hence you will require energy. You also require some co-location strategy to ensure you optimise the investment in terms of infrastructure and you are properly galvanising investors,” he said.

Uzoho said based on the study, about 174km of pipeline, measuring 16 inch or about 12 inch will go from Keffi, teeing off from the AKK towards Toto.

“On that stretch there are also phalanges to Karu, Akwanga, Doma, Keana and Awe. In those areas, we found notable possible clusters and also the possibility to situate industrial parks. I know today we are talking to you about Karu Industrial Park but we also found the opportunity to have industrial parks in most of these locations,” he said.

He said Nasarawa is also strategic especially with statistics showing that the Northern states make up for 70 percent of the demand for urea, with the state ideal for a co-location strategy through the establishment of gas modular facility.

Uzoho highlighted the progress so far made and the additional efforts that must be put in place in order to achieve the desired outcome.

“We started the journey. Yesterday, we had an AKK stakeholders engagement. It is a pipeline that has been long awaited. Thankfully, we are seeing traction. It is expected that the project would be technically completed by end of this year. Technically completing it makes it a real estate. It is gas in the pipeline that makes it a gas pipeline. So the engagement yesterday was with suppliers, building confidence and reassuring them to begin to make sure that gas is available to begin to flow through those axis,” he said.

Speaking about the next course of action, the GACN MD said they intend to convert the result of the feasibility study into an investors memorandum, a business opportunity document to start to engage possible and prospective investors who will then come into Nasarawa State to invest.

“The timeline for us to do this will be within this year because we want to get things going hot, so that we are able to turn this into practical solutions and start to optimise whether it is the existing infrastructure you have on ground, whether to encourage the already advanced engagements with yourself and the investors in solid minerals because we are getting update from NASIDA,” he added.

Both Dalapo Ogunmetal, Head, Business Development Axxela Ltd and Austine Ebekozien, MD, Bekos Energy, provided technical background on the project highlighting why Nasarawa State stands to benefit maximally by tapping into the AKK gas pipeline project.