By Gbenga Adedayo
The Federal Government has raised hope on reviving the abandoned Ogidigben Gas Plant located in Ogidigben,Delta State. The plant which is estimated to cost over $20 million is designed to be implemented as Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP).
This indication was expressed recently by the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru during the commissioning of the $60 million Egbaoma Gas Processing Plant in Delta State.
He said the Ogidigben Gas Plant is imperative in the light of the Federal Government’s gas aspiration of using gas as an enabler for energy independence, industrial development, commerce and environmental and social sustainability.
According to Baru, this will however, require the cooperation of all stakeholders, including investors who are expected to play collaborative role with the Federal Government through the NNPC, which is today pursuing aggressive growth in domestic gas supply capacity from the current 1.7 bscfd to 5 bscfd in the medium term. “This growth is anticipated to come from the seven critical gas development projects,” he said.
The proposed gas plant is located in Ogidigben, a sleepy Delta community that straddles between the Ijaws and Itsekiris, the site of which has ignited an old rivalry between the two ethnic groups which has been identified as a factor responsible for stalling the implementation of the gas plant.
Disclosing how the $20 billion Ogidigben Gas Revolution Industrial Park (GRIP) was stalled, the immediate past Group Executive Director, Gas and Power for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. David Ige had said the ethnic rivalry between the Ijaw and the Itsekiri over the land and the name “Ogidigben” for the proposed project was a major factor.
He said after Julius Berger had cleared over two kilometres of 2,700 hectares at the park designed for fertilizer, methanol, petrochemicals, and aluminium plants, this major investment had to be stopped based on this rivalry.
The former NNPC boss also named the unnecessary rivalry between Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) and the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) as part of the problem that frustrated the project.