Timipre Slyva, junior minister, petroleum resources and chairman of the governing council of the Nigerian Content Development Board (NCMDB), Nigeria’s special purpose local content body, has inaugurated the new governing council of the board with a request that the content programme of the Nigerian government should be vigorously pursued
He referred to the 10 years of NCDMB’s existence and what in his estimation had been achieved - monumental strides in deepening the Nigerian content in the Nigerian oil and gas industry; facilitating the registration of more than local 8,000 service providers and more than 60 operating companies, four active dry docking facilities, and five impressive pipe coating yards. The growth of a large number of successful indigenous operators which now account for more than 15 per cent of the oil production and 60 per cent of domestic gas production and with infrastructure in place for integration of FPSO in-country.
He listed also the construction of oil and gas parks in Bayelsa and Cross River States, two oil producing states, meant to enhance local manufacturing with the expectations of creating more than 2,000 direct jobs when completed, as another major achievement of NCDMB.
Sylva noted the NCDMB investment policy had helped in the efficient usage of the Nigerian Content Development Fund, leading to the partnership in setting up modular refineries, LPG value chain and other manufacturing hydrocarbon processing activities.
The minister also commended NCDMB’s Investment Policy, which he said is driving the prudent utilisation of the Nigerian Content Development Fund leading to the partnerships in the establishment of modular refineries, LPG value chain, and other manufacturing and hydrocarbon processing activities.
“Before 2010, only three percent of marine vessels were Nigerian owned, but today, Nigerians control and own over 40 per cent of vessels that are used in the oil and gas industry. In the area of fabrication, Nigeria can handle fabrication of more than 60,000 tonnes per year with its array of world-class fabrication yards.”
“The delivery of substantial elements of the Total Egina project and the integration of six modules in the country are as a result of Local Content intervention,” he said.
Accomplishing the lofty goals of the local content roadmap said Slyva would help further in the domestication of petroleum refining, domiciliation of manufacturing of industry requirements, extraction of value from gas, and positioning Nigerian operators and service providers at the fore-front of play in the upstream, midstream, and downstream sectors of the industry.
Simbi Kesiye Wabote, an engineer and executive secretary of NCMBD, said, “The importance of local content in any nation cannot be over-emphasised ... we reflect that we are not fully at our destination but the situation could have been worse... We are set and we are looking forward to the next decade of NCDMB with a sense of purpose to deliver on our mandate.”
Other members of the NCDMB Governing Council are representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Department of Petroleum Resources, the oil industry regulator, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the national oil company, National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the insurance watchdog, the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN).association of Nigerian indigenous technical oil service companies in the upstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry, the Nigerian Content Consultative Forum (NCCF), an affiliate of NCDMB, and Council for the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria (COREN), the regulator for the practice of engineering in Nigeria.
