THE startup of the West African Gas Pipeline operated by Chevron is understood to have been delayed for over three months due to repairs on supply pipes in Nigeria, but the first gas should flow by April, its director said recently. The 678-km pipeline will transport gas from Nigeria’s Niger Delta to Benin, Togo, and Ghana to help ease power shortages, seen as a major hindrance to development in the region.
The $620-million WAGP starts at the Itoki terminal in SE Nigeria and runs eastward across Benin and Togo to Takoradi in western Ghana. Jack Derickson, managing director of the West African Pipeline Co (WAPCo), said the pipeline had been ready since December, but the state-owned Nigeria Gas Co (NGC) was still repairing its own system from Warri in the Niger Delta to Itoki. "The current hold-up is repair of the NGC system several hundred miles upstream of WAGP. Our understanding is those repairs are nearly complete," Mr Derickson is reported as saying, adding that gas was likely to flow by April.
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