— The Nigerian Content Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has concluded plans to promote local content in the nation’s oil and gas industry as oil prices continue to drop in the global market.
The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr. Denzil Amagbe Kentebe indicated that adequate strategies, including engagements with the International Oil Companies, IOCs, had been developed in order to promote local content in the industry.
He explained that as country enter 2016 and so long as the price of oil remains low, the Board’s challenge would be to device strategies that will accommodate local content and at the same time ensure viability and profitability of new projects, adding that his team will continue to engage the IOC’s and partner with them in the renewed drive.
The NCDMB boss noted that, “The Board will continue implementation of its Capacity Development Initiatives, CDIs, to create a robust local supply chain that will meet the human and material requirements of the industry within acceptable cost, schedule and without compromising safety, environment and quality.
“On manufacturing and infrastructure development, we are implementing several initiatives to domicile manufacturing activities, to achieve in-country value addition,” he added.
He maintained that the board will stimulate local Pipemill manufacturing from 100,000Mt/ annum in 2010 to 270,000Mt/annum while also noting that effort to develop Polaku Pipemill and the efforts of 3rd party investors will be aggressively pursued in 2016, to achieve 600,000Mt/ annum local capacity by 2017 (compared to annual demand estimate of 800,000Mt/annum).
Kentebe explained that the Board will work towards establishing oil and gas parks to support service providers interested in manufacturing activities, adding that the Board has acquired suitable land in three (3) states- Imo, Bayelsa and Cross River states; and have commenced training of SMEs for the scheme.
According to him, when fully established, the oil and gas parks will serve as hubs for equipment manufacturing and services, community entrepreneurs will be engaged and fully integrated into the oil and gas supply chain while thousands of jobs will be created directly and indirectly.
He also hinted that the NCDMB had started to promote the local manufacture of LPG cylinders in response to the policy thrust of Government to encourage use of cooking gas just as it had also identified prospective investors.
Kentebe pointed out that in partnership with Bank of Industry (BOI), the Board will provide funding support to these investors in the drive towards raising local manufacturing capacity from 400,000 units to two million units per annum by 2017.
The Executive Secretary said the initiatives were targeted at closing skill gaps, create employment opportunities, develop entrepreneurs and domicile training and equipment within the country.