We’ve completed 80% of our section on AKK gas pipeline project, says contractor

The management of Brentex CPP Limited (BCL) says it has completed over 80 percent of its section on the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) gas pipeline project.

Brentex CPP is a project partner of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited for the gas pipeline project.

Reports had claimed that the NNPC is considering descoping part of the project being handled by the company because it is not satisfied with the work speed.

Descoping describes the removal of all or part of the works awarded to a contractor or subcontractor by an employer or contractor.

In a statement on Wednesday, the company corrected “inaccuracies in some of the reportage” of its appearance at the hearing of the senate committee on local content, chaired by Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, a lawmaker, on July 16.

The company said, among other questions, the committee chair asked BCL to confirm its commitment to deliver its own segment (318km x 40” segment 2) of the project by the first quarter (Q1) of 2025.

Clarifying its position, BCL said it told the committee that so far, it has completed over 80 percent of actual pipeline construction works, “including crossings, and that it is working with the NNPC, barring any challenge, to deliver all the stations by the first quarter of 2025”.

The firm said the only exemptions are two terminal gas stations (TGS), which are under descope conversation between NNPC and BCL.

According to the statement, the sum of $1.27 billion mentioned in some of the reports on BCL’s interaction at the senate is “actually the entire value of the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC)-Segment 2- contract, and NOT the value of the two TGS”.

The company also said the two TGS stations represent only about 10 percent of its contract value.

“It is important to note that we are one of the two contractors, and there are two segments of the project. BCL is only the contractor for segment 2 of the AKK project-Sarkin Pawa in Niger state to Tamburawa in Kano State”, the statement reads.

“Any check would confirm that BCL’s performance “is easily the best in the history of Government-funded pipeline construction projects in Nigeria.”

BCL also expressed happiness at the progress of the work.

The firm said it has always recognised the support it receives from the leadership of the NNPC, without which “we may have had no magic to deliver on this project”.