Nigeria has recorded a commercial transaction of raw gold sales at the London Bullion Market Association, the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake disclosed on Sunday.

He said the sales have delivered a $5m increase in Nigeria’s foreign reserves, 70 plus kilograms of gold refined to the London Bullion Market Good Delivery Standard and successful aggregation of locally mined gold thereby injecting about N6bn into the rural economy.

Alake disclosed this while presenting the latest gold bar sourced from artisanal and small gold miners and refined by the Solid Minerals Development Fund to President Bola Tinubu during the weekend.

The minister in a statement signed by the Special Assistant on Media, Segun Tomori, said the refined gold would be sold to the Central Bank of Nigeria to bolster foreign reserves.

Nigeria reportedly has about 600,000 tonnes of gold reserves, worth about $45bn located in several states including Zamfara, Edo.

However, the upsurge of illegal mining has led to a notable diversion of the nation’s commonwealth into the hands of private individuals, thereby diminishing resources intended for public benefit.

Three years ago, former president Muhammadu Buhari declared Zamfara State a ‘no-fly zone’ as part of efforts to curb the problem of illegal gold mining.

At the event, Alake commended Tinubu for supporting reforms in the solid minerals sector, assuring that the National Gold Purchase programme will increase the country’s reserve and boost the naira’s value.

Explaining to President Tinubu the significance of the event, Alake said it marked the first commercial transaction under the National Gold Purchase Program, the centralised offtake scheme supported by a decentralised aggregation and production network of artisanal and small-scale miners and cooperatives.

He said, “The successful completion of the first commercial transaction demonstrates the National Gold Purchase Program’s effectiveness. It has increased the nation’s foreign reserves assets and shown that using the Nigerian Naira to purchase a liquid asset traded in United States Dollars, such as gold, is a viable strategy. This transaction has also underscored the potential of the National Gold Purchase Program to enhance fiscal and monetary stability.”

Receiving and displaying a symbolic bar, Tinubu commended the Ministry for achieving a major milestone in the administration’s drive to diversify the economy.

“This is another concrete step towards the diversification process under the Renewed Hope Agenda,” the President said.

In her presentation, the Executive Secretary of the Solid Minerals Development Fund, Fatimah Shinkafi said the London Bullion Market Good Delivery Standard is the globally recognised stringent and trusted standard that enables the global trade in gold and silver bars.

“Only gold and silver bars that meet our Good Delivery standards are acceptable in the settlement of a Loco London contract – where the bullion traded is physically held in London” she said.

Shinkafi said, that through the efforts of the National Gold Purchase Program under the Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, Nigeria has joined a select group of countries bolstering their gold reserves by purchasing gold in local currency to foster economic confidence, enhance currency stability, and create a more attractive environment for foreign investment.

The delivery date for the completion of the $700m Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben gas pipeline project, popularly called OB3, has been shifted from March 2024 to August, as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited announced its readiness to complete the facility.

On February 28, 2024, The PUNCH reported that the Federal Government had declared that the project would be completed in March this year, a project that commenced in 2016.

It announced this in February through the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpo, at the 7th Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, where the minister described the OB3 gas pipeline as one of the biggest gas transmission systems in both Nigeria and Africa.

“I am highly elated to announce that going by the contractor estimates, the OB3 pipeline will be completed by March 2024 and the 42” 127km pipeline will supply 2BCF (two billion standard cubic feet) per day,” Ekpo had stated.

But in a statement issued in Abuja on Sunday by the spokesperson of NNPC, Olufemi Soneye, the oil firm declared that the project would be completed in August.

The Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC, Mele Kyari, confirmed this during an inspection tour of the OB3 pipeline River Niger Crossing operation at Aboh, Delta State, on Saturday, according to the statement.

By design, the OB3 gas pipeline is the interconnector which links the Eastern gas pipeline network to the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System in the West and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano pipeline in the North.

The River Niger Crossing operation has been the major impediment to the completion of the strategic OB3 gas pipeline for over three years, NNPC stated.

This, it said, was due to the failure of the various technologies deployed to achieve the construction of the 48-inch pipe under the river bed between Ndoni in Rivers State and Aboh in Delta State.

It, however, noted that with the adoption of the Micro-Tunnelling/Direct Pipe Installation technology, the new contractors, Messrs HDD Thailand/Enikkom and Tunnelling Services Group (TSG), were making a headway with about 860mout of the 1,800m achieved so far.

Speaking after the inspection tour, Kyari expressed delight at the breakthrough, which signalled the imminent completion of the project.

He was quoted as saying, “This is a major project of monumental value to our country. What this means is that this is the only way we can deliver the gas revolution. I am very happy and convinced that, latest by the middle of August, we will complete this project. I have been assured of that by the project team.”

On the significance of the project, he said, “Once completed, we will see about 2.2 billion standard cubic feet of gas coming into our network. We believe that this will give our country a breathing space of demand, I am sure we can catch up with that kind of demand in the next one and a half years. We are happy that this will give us the platform to unleash the gas revolution in our country.”

Also speaking on the project during the tour, Ekpo expressed satisfaction with the pace of work at the OB3 River Niger Crossing operation.

“I was here last year and I saw the work that was going on. There was a promise that it would be completed by December last year. I took it with a doubt. But today, from what I can see, I am confident that by July or August, it will be completed and it will be commissioned by the President,” the minister stated.

The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Olu Verheijen, said she was looking forward to the completion of the project having been assured by the technical team that the right technology had been found to resolve the complex challenges of the River Niger Crossing.

“As the minister and other speakers have said, we are looking forward to having this project deliver prosperity to Nigerians in the form of electricity and other areas,” Verheijen said

The Managing Director, Tunnel Service Group, one of the contractors to the project, Ingo Justen, who was on the ground to supervise the project at the request of the NNPC boss, expressed confidence that the current technology being applied in the execution of the project would lead to its speedy conclusion.

In a presentation, the Managing Director, NNPC Gas Infrastructure Company, Seyi Omotowa, disclosed that at the rate of progress with the new technology deployed, the River Niger Crossing operation, which is the only aspect of the OB3 Gas Pipeline Project left, would be achieved on schedule.

The estimated cost for constructing the OB3 gas pipeline is $700m. The project started sometime in 2016 and is also known as the East-West Pipeline.

It connects the Obiafu-Obrikom gas plant near Omuku, Rivers State, to Oben, Edo State and is to transport over two billion standard cubic feet of gas per day.