WAGP ready for commissioning

The $1.1billion 1000km West African gas pipeline (WAGP) has been completed and may be commissioned this month, according to the group managing director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Funsho Kupolokun. The commissioning ceremony will be performed by President Obasanjo.

The pipeline traverse 1,000km onshore and offshore from Nigeria’s Niger Delta region to its planned terminus in Ghana. Four nations, Nigeria, Ghana, Togo and Benin signed a 20-year agreement on the implementation of the pipeline which provides for a comprehensive legal, fiscal and regulatory framework, as well as a single authority for the implementation of the project.

The project begun in 1982, when the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) proposed the development of a natural gas pipeline throughout West Africa. In the early 1990’s, a feasibility report deemed that a project was commercially viable. In September 1995, the governments of four African countries signed a Heads of Agreement (HOA). The feasibility study was carried out in 1999. On 11 August 1999, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed by participating countries in Cotonou. In February 2000, an Inter-Governmental Agreement was signed. The WAGP implementation agreement was signed in 2003. The construction started in 2005. The first gas delivery is scheduled for March 2007. The main user will be Takoradi power plant in Ghana.

The pipeline is owned and operated by the consortium of Chevron (38 per cent), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (25 per cent), Royal Dutch Shell (17 per cent), Takoradi Power Company Limited (16 per cent), Sociéétéé Togolaise de Gaz (SoToGaz - 2 per cent) and Sociéétéé Beninoise de Gaz S.A. (SoBeGaz - 2 per cent).

The project is an International Gas Transmission System that will transport clean, reliable and competitively priced natural gas from Nigeria to customers in Ghana, Togo and Benin. Both public and private sector companies from these four countries are collaborating in a Joint Venture company known as the West African Gas Pipeline Company (WAPCO) to construct and operate the Pipeline. The 678km, US$635 million Pipeline extends from the existing Escravos-Lagos pipeline at the Alagbado “Tee” in Nigeria and proceed to a beachhead in Lagos and from there offshore to Takoradi, in Ghana, with gas delivery laterals from the main line extending to Cotonou (Benin), Lome (Togo) and Tema (Ghana).

The Escravos-Lagos pipeline system has a capacity of 800 MMscfd, and the WAPCO system will initially carry a volume of 170 MMscfd and peak over time at a capacity of 470 MMscfd. As a source of lower-cost sustainable fuel for power generation and direct use for industrial and commercial customers, the Pipeline fosters an enabling environment for economic development and job creation in the sub-region.