The House of Representatives has directed the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited to provide information regarding the implementation, funds utilisation and status of the Trans-Saharan gas project.
This followed the adoption of a motion by Ahmed Munir (APC, Kaduna) during the plenary on Wednesday.
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Presenting the motion, he reminded that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Limited and the Algerian National Oil and Gas Company (Sonatrach) signed a Memorandum of Understanding for a 12 billion dollars, 4,128 kilometers Natural Gas Pipeline Project on 14 January 2002.
He said the project has a projected annual capacity of 30 billion cubic meters that will extend gas supply to Europe.
He stated that, in June 2005, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited and Sonatrach signed a contract with Penspen Limited for a feasibility study of the project, which was completed in September 2006.
Munir added that the pipeline was discovered to be technically and economically feasible and reliable, which in turn led to the intergovernmental agreement on the pipeline signed by the Energy Ministers of Nigeria, Niger and Algeria on July 3, 2009, in Abuja.
The lawmaker added that, in 2013, the federal government approved a budget of 400 million Dollars for the commencement of the project originally scheduled to be operational by 2020 with no commensurate progress made to date.
He added that a new Gas Master Plan (GMP) needs to be crafted due to the current geopolitical realities such as the newly completed 20,000 barrel per day Zinder Refinery in the Niger Republic, the new Niger-Benin Republic Pipeline due for completion in 2023 and the discovery and exploitation of hydrocarbons in commercial quantity in the Lake Chad Region of Chad Republic.
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