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The North African country recently signed a gas has refused to invest in local refining of petro- the Board had signed an agreement with the Gas
deal with Italy to increase gas supplies. leum products. I can tell you that scarcity of fuel Aggregation Company of Nigeria (GACN) to
The hikes in gas prices helped Algeria to will continue in the country in as much as we establish a gas-fired power plant at the Oduk-
shore up its foreign reserves. Energy revenues depend on importation of these products,” said pani park – to provide the park with constant
are expected to rise to $50bn by end-2022, from NUPENG head Prince William Akporeha. electricity. He assured that the power facility will
only $35.4bn last year. “Nigeria is the only oil-producing country be ready before the end of 2022, about the same
bna/IntelliNews, June 30 2022 that depends on importation of products. Refin- time the Emeyal-1 and Odukpani parks would
ing is not rocket science,” Akporeha added. be completed, ahead of commencing operations
Nigeria could witness bna/IntelliNews, July 4 2022 in early 2023. He announced that the Board had
started inviting interested manufacturing com-
“mother of all queues” due NCDMB partnering Shell, panies and other firms to apply for spaces in the
parks. The parks would have dedicated power
to fuel debts, retailers warn Exxon, NAOC in oil and gas supply and shared services and were conceived
to domicile equipment components manufac-
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Associa- parks, Wabote says turing in-country, to meet the needs of the oil
tion of Nigeria (IPMAN) has warned that Nige- and gas industry and sectoral linkages as well as
ria could witness “the mother of all queues” if the Major international operating oil and gas com- create jobs for the nation’s teeming youths.
government fails to pay money owed to the retail panies, notably Shell Petroleum Development Wabote also indicated that the Board was also
fuel sector. Corp. (SPDC), ExxonMobil Nigeria and Nige- working to develop oil and gas parks at Oguta in
The association, whose member companies rian Agip Oil Co. (NAOC) have made significant Imo State, at Onna in Akwa Ibom, Ilaje in Ondo
control around 70% of filling stations in the investments in support of the ongoing develop- State and in Delta State, and work was progress-
country, claims that it is owed bridging claims ment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme ing in different stages at the identified locations.
by the Federal Government’s Nigeria Mid- (NOGaPS), the Executive Secretary, Nigerian He confirmed that the completed oil and gas
stream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Content Development and Monitoring Board parks would be managed by professional facility
Authority (NMDPRA). It estimates those claims (NCDMB), Simbi Kesiye Wabote has revealed. managers, to ensure their sustainability.
at NGN74bn ($178mn), but Abuja claims to He stated this recently at the Nigerian Con- He also stated that the Board is partnering
have paid up. tent Sensitisation Programme for Law Enforce- with the Nigeria LNG Limited to develop the
“Since [NMDPRA head Farouk Ahmed] ment Agencies, organised by the NCDMB in Brass Island Shipyard as a Capacity Develop-
claims to have paid, we are not arguing but we Yenagoa, Bayelsa State with a view to strength- ment Initiative. He hinted that the feasibility
challenge him to come out and name the mar- ening the existing collaboration with various law study, geotechnical survey, and site selection
keters that he paid.” IPMAN official Mohammed enforcement organisations and sister agencies study had all been completed.
Shuaibu said on June 30 to the Nigerian outlet and leverage their expertise and partnership to In addition, the land valuation and perime-
Punch. “Let him explain from A to Z. Let him accelerate Nigerian content compliance in the oil ter survey had also been completed and the plan
bring out the documents.” and gas industry. is to construct the shipyard in two phases, he
Shuaibu went on to say that Ahmed would He gave a breakdown of the Board’s achieve- added.
have to clarify the matter or risk being blamed ments and initiatives and hinted that NCDMB Speaking further on the rationale for organ-
for fuel shortages. “If you say you have paid our was developing the oil and gas parks in conjunc- ising the workshop and engaging with law
members NGN74bn, and we say we’ve not been tion with key operators in the oil and gas indus- enforcement agencies, the NCDMB boss noted
paid, then come out and explain to the public. try. According to him, Shell funded the provision that “when you are speaking the same language
Anyway, by the time we down-tool fully within of power and utility cables deployed at the oil and with Customs, they will guard against the impor-
the next one week, he will explain to the pub- gas park located at Emeyal-1, Bayelsa State, while tation of goods that can be produced incountry,
lic and the presidency how the situation got to Exxon Mobil provided the electrical infrastruc- while immigration will help in terms of expatri-
that level because this one is going to lead to the ture for the park at Odukpani in Cross River ate quota management.”
mother of all queues.” State. Also, NAOC had earlier partnered with the In his welcome address, Head Legal Ser-
Meanwhile, fears over fuel scarcity increased Board to develop the 10-MW gas power plant vices NCDMB, Barr Naboth Onyesoh said the
on July 4, after the Nigeria Union of Petroleum that would supply electricity to the Bayelsa park Board recognises the power of collaboration
and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) claimed when completed, in addition to providing unin- and the impetus it generates for the attainment
that the government’s practice of importing fuel terrupted electricity currently to the Nigerian of its mandate and that is why Compliance and
rather than building up the local refining sector Content Tower and some strategic infrastructure Enforcement is one of the five pillars of the
was making things worse. owned by the Bayelsa State Government. Board’s 10-year Strategic Roadmap, formulated
“We cannot understand why the government The Executive Secretary also confirmed that to drive Nigerian content growth to 70% by 2027.
He remarked that “collaboration and stakeholder
engagement was also identified in the same
10-year Roadmap as one of the four enablers to
attain the 70% Nigerian Content growth target.”
He maintained that since the oil and gas
industry serves as the mainstay of Nigeria’s
economy, all stakeholders of the industry should
support the implementation of the Nigerian
Content Act to ensure that Nigeria derives max-
imum value from the oil and gas industry while it
is still relevant in the global energy mix.

P18 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 27 06•July•2022