West African Gas Pipeline project to take off one year later

THE West African Gas Pipeline project (WAGP) due to flag off next year is already in a distressed state as officials attempt to win over Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) in the Niger Delta region hit a brick wall. The project originally scheduled to begin this year according to officials will now take-off next year due to some logistics which needed to be put in place.
Agency reports indicate that the project was originally scheduled for completion next year, but a source at ECOWAS Secretariat told that construction work on the project would begin next year after the environmental impact assessment of the project had been completed.
"Taking into account the time-table for the environmental impact assessment, it is anticipated that 2002 is now more likely to be the start of construction after completion of detailed engineering as well as meeting environmental requirements," the source said.

He assured that consultation, would be completed to the satisfaction of the communities beforeconstruction begins and that even during construction, there would be consultations with a view to keep the communities well-informed about progress of the project. The source told that an active programme of public education on the project had begun and that a programme for extensive stakeholder consultation had been drawn up.
"The consortium has also engaged independent institutes in the sub-region to undertake a knowledge, attitude and acceptance study on the project in order to assess its public understanding and perception," the source said. He dismissed the impression that Chevron and the Nigerian government had been carrying on with total contempt for the communities.
The project was intended to reduce the cost of energy and sustain industries which would in turn sustain communities in the three countries on low cost energy. The project seeks to utilise natural gas currently being flared in Nigeria to power electricity plants in the recipient countries. The gas project is expected to have positive impact on the climate change in the three countries.
Various NGOs in the Niger Delta region appeared unanimous as they told the officials of the gas project that enough Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) has not been done in the possible effects of the project and that the people through whose backyards the pipelines would pass were still in the dark over the project in Nigeria.

The West African Gas Pipeline described as a 21st century regional infrastructure would transport Nigeria's abundant gas resources into neighbouring Benin, Togo and Ghana. According to Esther Amba Numaba Cobbah, External Affairs Manager, West African Gas Pipeline Project, the project will be the first cross border gas transportation system in the region, and will bring an important energy source to regional markets which, she said, are currently energy starved, adding that the project would foster regional cooperation and integration.
Cobbah made several spirited efforts to convince the teeming NGOs from the Niger Delta region of the gas projects positive impacts in the region. It would be recalled that in 1998 Chevron Nigeria, Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC), Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) formed a consortium to develop the project, two gas companies in Benin and Togo Republics, SO BE GAZ and SO TO GAZ, also joined the consortium as commercial groups.
Mr. Clement Oke, a technical engineer in the project said feasibility study so far on the project shows that its is technically and economically possible and that the benefits are many. The gas project would reduce air pollution, reduce desertification, preserve bio-diversity, improve health and sequestration of trees. Other benefits would be the drastic reduction if not total elimination of gas flaring which oil firms in the Niger Delta said would end in 2008.