Over eighty business opportunities worth $100billion have been unveiled for operators in the Nigerian Oil and Gas industry.
This was disclosed by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) at the second Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF) which held in Yenagoa Bayelsa State, recently.
The fair, which had the theme ‘’Maximizing Oil & Gas Industry for the Benefit of the Nigerian People’’ was held at the NCDMB 1000 capacity conference hall.
Speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Simbi Kesiye Wabote, said the Board had identified opportunities which will be developed by major international and indigenous operating companies in the short and long term, with the estimated cumulative value of the projects exceeding $100billion.
The projects are contained in the Compendium of Nigerian Content Opportunities in the Oil and Gas Industry launched at the event.
The projects and opportunities cover the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the Nigerian oil and gas sectors and were collated from presentations by various oil and gas companies at the first edition of NOGOF in 2017 and updated at workshops organised by the Board in October 2018.
Meanwhile, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, explained that the speedy development of the identified $100billion opportunities would require the roles and contributions of various entities, including the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for approvals, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for negotiations and the oil companies, who would take FIDs, among others.
He promised that the Ministry of Petroleum Resources would facilitate a special arrangement that would involve every agency of government and entity that has a role to play in the approval and development of the identified projects.
“We must avoid a situation whereby NCDMB might work very fast and gets to the goal post and others are just taking off. We would create an arrangement that involves everybody and be clear about the deliverables, timelines and opportunities and bring out something which everyone can then drive,” he said.
Wabote also explained that the compendium was intended to create a database of Nigerian Content opportunities and help indigenous and potential investors prepare, improve their capacities and capabilities to participate in available and upcoming contracts and projects.
He added that the compendium gives the industry a five year outlook and enables stakeholders to key into those opportunities.
“Two years ago when we held this workshop we talked about ExxonMobil’s Ibot, Total’s Ikike and NLNG Train 7. Today they are going through the funnel and within the next few weeks they would take Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on Ikike and Ibot and before the end of the year they would take FID on Train 7.
“We focus and follow through on those opportunities. Every two years we roll on new opportunities and add to the compendium,” he said.
Kachikwu also disclosed that that the Ministry of Petroleum would develop a policy that would encourage persons living in oil producing communities to form cooperatives, with which they can set up and own modular refineries. This he said would come as part of Government to provide support for modular refineries as a strategy for ending crude oil theft, vandalism and environmental degradation.
“We would have some agreements with them to stop the sabotage. We can work with NCDMB to put in a bit of funding. Then we put in technical know-how, business structure around it and have a major shareholder who is an entrepreneur. That way the locals get to participate, get jobs, polish their skills sets, crude is paid for and not stolen and the environment is better dealt with,” he said.
Speaking further the Minister expressed regret that the potentialities of the Nigerian oil and gas sector was not being maximized and counselled stakeholders to accelerate their activities because oil is a fast degenerating asset and developed countries were already switching to cleaner energy options.
Source: The Guardian
