The Federal Government is working towards auctioning its bitumen block in the third quarter of this year.
This was made known by the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc Olamilekan Adegbite, while receiving the Australian High Commissioner to Nigeria, John Donnelly, at the headquarters of the Ministry in Abuja.
He announced this in response to the enquiry of the Australian High Commissioner, John Donnelly, who visited the mines ministry on Tuesday.
According to Adegbite, after adequate data have been gathered from some bitumen sites government will go for auctioning of the mineral in the third quarter of the year, which will give opportunities to investors to locally develop the bitumen industry.
He said, “A lot of people are interested in bitumen which is coming from both local and foreign investors. However, we are still acquiring data in some of the fields and once the data is in, we will go for auctioning in the third quarter.”
He further stated that the ministry was working on the local production of barite, which was a critical weighting material in drilling fluids used in oil industry.
The ministry had contracted a consultant to help raise standard in the local production of barite to ensure that the oil industry players begin to use barite produced in Nigeria as against importing from other countries.
Adegbite also said that Ajaokuta steel plant would be a game-changer for the country when fully functional, revealing that about 13 other minerals were required in the production of steel.
While harping on the Ajaokuta Steel Company, he maintained that the plant after completion will employ 10, 000 Nigerians.
“One of the mandates that the president gave me was to use the sector to diversify the economy and create employment. And Ajaokuta is one place that would readily employ like 10,000 Nigerians if it is working fully. About 14 minerals are going into the production of steel through the blast furnace. We have got all these minerals in Nigeria. Production of these other minerals which we need to produce steel will also create jobs”, he said.
