New Telegraph

Local content devt: NCDMB rescues local firms, boosts productivity targets

Until it’s established in 2011, the oil and gas industry has been doing almost everything from facilities outside the shores of Nigeria including manpower. Meanwhile, the crude that is being explored was gotten from the land of the Niger Delta. It has been like that for as long as one can remember right from the time of oil discovery in the region until former president Good luck Jonathan signed a bill establishing the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) sometime in 2010.

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board was established on 22 April 2010 by the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) act with the mandate to make procedures that will guide, monitor, coordinate and implement the provisions of the NOGICD act.

That of course changed both the fortune of the region and that of Nigeria. Good luck Jonathan in one of the fora at Emeyal the venue of the industrial park being put together by NCDMB had said that he signed the bill for the establishment of NCDMB so that more than 80% of resources needed for oil exploration here will be sourced and provided in this country and the purpose has almost been achieved ten years after as was disclosed recently by the executive secretary of the board Simbi Wabote.

At the 10th edition of practical Nigerian content forum with theme driving Nigerian content in the new dawn of the petroleum industry act, Wabote said each of the pillars and enablers was backed by initiatives which he said were aimed at achieving the 70 per cent Nigerian content level in the oil and gas industry by the year 2027.

Recounting the achievements of NCDMB in the last ten years, he said that the board delivered on the 5,000bpd Walter smith modular refinery commissioned by the President in November 2020, adding that another modular refinery, the 2,500 BPD Duport modular refinery situated at Egbokor in Edo State was also scheduled for commissioning by end of this year. He disclosed “Access gate and security house internal road network completed with conduits for power cables, streetlights and car park administrative building for offices, site clinic, control room, and other support services capacity training centre complete with classrooms and 200-seater amphitheatre. “Hostel building for residential training and capacity building events, Block of flats for resident factory managers, fire station building with watchtower among others have been handed over.

“Engineering designs and site preparation works have been completed for the sites in Akwa Ibom and Imo states. We also added Delta and Ondo states to our NOGaPS project sites in the last two years thus bringing the number of states under coverage to six. “We have concluded arrangements with gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) and INFINI power limited for provision of reliable power to the two industrial parks next year. “In collaboration with Rungas, we are constructing 1.2 million units per annum capacity LPG composite cylinder manufacturing plant in Bayelsa and Lagos States. The factory acceptance test of the equipment is in progress at the moment.

“We are also collaborating with Chimons to build a 5,000MT LPG loading and receiving terminal in Koko – Delta State. “We teamed up with Butane energy limited to build LPG storage/ bottling plants and LPG depots in Kaduna, Bauchi, Katsina, Kano, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Gombe, Zamfara, Jigawa and Abuja. “Also, in partnership with Brass fertilizer, we are developing a 10,000 tonnes/day methanol production facility at Brass Island, Bayelsa State.

“In 2022, we will commission and commence operations at NOGaPS sites in Emeyal 1 Bayelsa and Odukpani, Cross Rivers State, complete the engineering design of Brass Island shipyard and embark on roadshows to secure investment partners. Commission the 2,000 BPD Atlantic modular refinery in Brass, commission the 400,000/ year Rungas LPG composite cylinder manufacturing plant in Polaku, Bayelsa state, commission the 48,000 litres/day base oil production plant located in Omagwa Rivers State including so many other projects in the pipeline. He also stated: “So far, we have expanded the size of funds for the Nigerian content intervention fund from $200million to $400million with $350 million from NCDMB and $50million from NEXIM bank.

“NEXIM Bank has completed processing of the loan approval for the first set of beneficiaries of the funds under their management. We have launched the USD50 million research & development fund for basic research, research commercialization, university endowments, and centres of excellence.

“There are a total of 96 initiatives. Out of which 56 initiatives are on track, 24 initiatives are ongoing, 16 initiatives are not yet due. Overall, 75% of the roadmap initiatives are on track as of November 2021. “Five areas monitored for evaluation of Nigerian content are engineering, procurement, fabrication, project management, and services. Based on projects covered by our monitoring and evaluation directorate, a total of $20.4billion was spent on these five categories between 2016 and 2020. “The top three industry spend $8.07 billion on fabrication representing 39% of spend; $4.74billion on engineering services representing 23% of spending, and $5.67billion on procurement of manufactured materials representing 28% of spend. “The low spends were $1.18billion on services representing 6% of spend and $746million on project management representing 4% of spend.

On engineering, $4.2billion out of $4.7billion representing 89% NC project management: $427million out of $746million representing 57% NC Services: $441million out of $1.12billion representing 37% NC procurement of materials: $1.5billion out of $5.7billion representing 27% NC, and fabrication services: $1.98billion out of $8.07billion representing 25% NC,” he reeled out.

Earlier, the Minister of States for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, had enjoined the management of NCDMB to continue with her commendable growth and remain focused on the implementation of the Nigerian content ten-year strategic road map to cultivate Nigerian content to the targeted level of 70% by the year 2027.

The minister who spoke through a director in the ministry, Famous Eseduwo however advised all the relevant stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to use the opportunity imbibed in the establishment of the petroleum industry act to bring in more investment into the country.

The minister said driving Nigeria content to the ground of petroleum industry act, it is expected that with the PIA in place and supported by the structures to ease business new investment decisions will begin to happen in Nigeria oil and gas industry.

He said, “Driving Nigeria content to the ground of petroleum industry act, it is expected that with the PIA in place and supported by the structures to ease business, new investment decisions will begin to happen in Nigerian oil and gas industry.

“With over 42 billion dollars worth of investment agreement signed by various Nigerian entities at the just concluded Intra African trade fair, there is strong optimism that so many new projects will soon commence in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

We need new projects in the industry to increase our production, grow the national revenue base in the local supply chain and create more employment for the communities. “Oil and gas museum is currently being jointly built by NCDMB, petroleum technology oil and gas museum development fund, Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Bayelsa State Government.

“Other strategic actions by the federal government to industrial-ize Bayelsa State include the various oil and gas investment crystallizing in the various parts of the state. Like the Nigerian oil park, the great accomplishment and gas scheme, the petroleum limited, the Brass fertilizer project, the modular refinery and so on. The managing director, Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) Osagie Okunbor, said the successes achieved in the oil and gas industry showed that local content in the Nigerian oil and gas sector had grown tremendously in the past decades. According to him, many strides have been made in developing domestic capacity in the country like the Egina project executed by total energies. He said: “Egina enabled the domiciliation of new capacities and facilities in-country one of which is the FPSO integration facility located at the LADOL free zone.

This feat by total energies added to the pool of jobs in-country and enabled capital retention. “Also SPDC limited in 2016 spent more than N2 billion in the construction, upgrade and provision of equipment for the Nigerian institute of welding in a bid to enhance welding technology in-country. Another laudable project was the establishment of three world-class pipe-mills in-country for the manufacturing of helical submerged arc welded line pipes. “ExxonMobil upstream and its affiliates have, since 2006, supported the training of unemployed Nigerian engineers, through its engineering capability development programme.” Okunbor further noted that Agip joint venture was working with the NCDMB to provide a 15 megawatts power station for electricity to the Nigerian oil and gas park scheme in the Ogbia local government area of Bayelsa state. “Chevron’s human capacity development programme which is focused on dynamic, positioning training is another commendable effort in building domestic capacity. With the five-year scholarships it provides for this training, Chevron has successfully trained over 172 Nigerian seamen.

“The launch of a $200m Nigerian content Intervention fund managed for the NCDMB by the bank of the industry is another commendable initiative set up to boost the financial capacity of indigenous companies with loans at very attractive interest rates, which by extension reduces overall project costs. “It is important to also recognize the successes from indigenous service companies. For example, Dorman Long Nigeria fabricated the first pressure vessel in-country for the Gbaran Ubie Project. Kay- Global, another indigenous service company is manufacturing fire retardant coveralls in Delta and Rivers States.”

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