President Goodluck Jonathan on Wednesday, January 29^th, in a report on the status of the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project presented at the 30th meeting of the NEPAD Heads of State and Government Orientation Committee in Addis Ababa, announced that Nigeria has mobilized US$700 million to support the completion of the Nigeria-Algeria gas pipeline project.

He said the immediate focus for Nigeria was to connect major gas supply sources in the Niger Delta region through pipeline infrastructure that traverses the northern half of the country and delivers gas to the Nigeria/Niger border.

“We have raised $450 million in Eurobonds and an additional direct equity contribution of about $250m in support of this project. The NNPC, which is the executor of this project has completed the concept design for the pipeline, which is an important milestone since I last provided an update on this project to the committee.”

The report also noted that work had begun in the acquisition of Rights of Way survey of key segments of the pipeline, while work on the environmental impact assessment study of the pipeline would soon commence.

President Jonathan informed the NEPAD meeting, chaired by President Macky Sall of Senegal, that the front end design of the pipeline would be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2014.

“This will be followed closely by major construction activities on the Trans-Nigeria segment. It is our expectation and aspiration that work on the Trans-Nigeria segment will be completed, as planned, by 2018.”

The $20 billion Trans-Saharan project, when completed, will transport about 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Warri through Niger Republic to Algeria and to Spain and Europe. It will be operated by the NNPC and Sonatrach of Algeria, both of which will hold 90 percent shares of the equities of the project.