In Nigeria, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, has revealed that the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo, will lead a delegation from the country to the 27th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Summit which will take place from July 10 to July 18, in Kigali, Rwanda.

According to the Minister, the summit would open the way for a serious appraisal of the $20 billion Nigeria-Algeria Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project under the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD).He added that the Nigeria-Algeria gas pipeline is a major project of NEPAD that the summit will give attention to amongst other issues this year.

This pipeline would convey about 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas from the Nigerian city of Warri via Niger to Hassi R'Mel in Algeria. In Hassi R'Mel, the pipeline will connect to the existing Trans-Mediterranean, Maghreb–Europe, Medgaz and Galsi pipelines. These pipelines supply Europe from the gas transmission hubs at El Kala and Beni Saf on Algeria's Mediterranean coast.

The length of the pipeline would be 4,128 km, i.e 1,037 km in Nigeria, 841 km in Niger, and 2,310 km in Algeria and would be operated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Sonatrach.The partners will hold 90% shares of equities from the project, while the National Oil Company of Niger will hold 10% equity, as it had admitted as a co-sponsor of the pipeline, Xinhuanet news reports.

The Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline project, which was considered under the NEPAD Initiative supported by former President Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, Abdoulazeez Boutaflika of Algeria and Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, will supply Nigerian gas to the European market and is estimated to cost around $12billion.

Anita Fatunji