By John Ikani
The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has assured that the incoming administration will continue with present policies and project implementation, dispelling fears of an overturn.
Speaking at a press conference in Abuja ahead of the 4th Nigerian Oil and Gas Forum (NOGOF), NCDMB’s Executive Secretary, Engr. Simbi Wabote, stressed that “the rulling political party is succeeding itself and did not abandon the previous administration’s projects, thus it will not abandon its own.”
Fielding questions on level of nigerian content in the oil and gas sector, Engr. Wabote expressed optimism that “Nigerians will provide 70% content participation in the construction of another train for the Nigerian Liquidfied Natural Gas (NLNG) project.”
According to him, “Nigerians are providing 50% of the Train 7 project.”
The local content boss explained that prior to the NOGOF, “local content participation in the LNG train one to six was almost zero as everything was done outside of the country.”
However, with the NOGOF’s help, local content participation in Train 7 has increased to 50%.
Engre. Wabote stated, “If we want to build another train of an NLNG, 70% of it will be done by Nigerians in country.”
The local content chieftain went on to stress the need for NCDMB to assist other African countries in developing their local content capacity in the oil and gas industry.
According to him, the NCDMB will be sharing the strategies it used to achieve 54% local content in the oil and gas industry with other countries and international companies at the upcoming fair in Yenogoa, Bayelsa State, on May 18th and 19th, 2023.
On the production of gas cylinders, Wabote expressed concern over the continuous importation of gas cylinders and revealed that the NCDMB has started the project of manufacturing about 1.2 million gas cylinders.
Although the Board’s core mandate is not to manufacture cylinders, it is partnering with a firm that is yet to raise its share of the equity for cylinder manufacturing.
“Our partner is looking for its debt portion but for us our equity is ready so they are actively working to see get the debt portion to complete the manufacturing,” Wabote added.
He also mentioned that the board is negotiating with NLNG, which supplies almost all the LPG needed in the country, to support the cylinder manufacturing project.
