Nigeria has struck a gas-supply agreement for its long-idle Ajaokuta Steel Company, a step officials say brings the West African nation closer to reviving a plant that has swallowed more than $8 billion in public money over five decades without ever rolling a single coil of steel.
Under the arrangement, up to 50 million standard cubic feet of gas a day will feed a power plant that services the sprawling metals complex on the banks of the Niger River, about 200 kilometers south of Abuja.
For years, the absence of a reliable gas supply has been the single biggest obstacle cited by would-be investors, according to Nasir Naeem Abdulsalam, the plant’s managing director.
“We have had several different investors across different countries ask the same question: ‘How do we get the supply of gas?’” Abdulsalam said. “Without gas, you can’t operate the steel plant. You can’t operate the independent power
