He said the Equatorial Guinea gas pipeline and the Trans-Sahara pipeline projects would provide the platform for Nigeria to capture the expanding European gas market through the North African route. This, he said, was part of the present administration's initiative to capitalize on Nigeria's huge gas reserves, as well as to help move towards realizing the ultimate objective of meeting the 2008 'flares-out' deadline set by the federal government. Mr Kupolokun said that the 22 different power projects around the country have raised the volume of domestic gas consumption from about 170m cuft/d in 1999 to the current level of over 600m cuft/d. The capacity of the Nigeria LNG project, he said, is forecast to grow to about 30m tons/yr by 2012, while the development of the West African gas pipeline (WAGP) project is on course, with its commissioning planned for the end of the second quarter next year. The WAGP is expected to transport about 580m cuft/d of gas to Benin Republic, Togo, and Ghana.