By Kenechukwu Obiajuru, Yenagoa
The Nigeria Oil and Gas Park project built in Emeyal 1, community in Ogbia local government of Bayelsa by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) will be ready by fourth quarter of 2022.
According to Mr Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB who gave the timeline to Orient daily during an assessment tour of the facility on Wednesday expressed satisfaction at the quality of job being executed at the site.
He said that the compliance to high standards and specifications for oil and gas projects by indigenous contractors was an indication that the Nigerian Content policy was yielding dividends adding that the confidence reposed by the board is being justified.
He explained that the project was aimed at creating an industrial hub for manufacture of sundry materials used in the oil and gas sector to forestall capital flight and create jobs.
He explained that the facility includes a dedicated 10 Mega Watts gas fired power plant to serve the companies in the park.
“The idea is to encourage in-country manufacture of materials used in the oil and gas sector to boost economy and deepen the participation of Nigerians in a cluster where there is available infrastructure to be a catalyst to manufacturing.
“In manufacturing power is very crucial and we factored that into this park and we have constructed a 10 Mega Watts power plant that will guarantee 24 hour power supply to the park.
“From what I have seen, a lot has been done since 2018 when we were here for the ground breaking ceremony, a lot of buildings have been completed, so many more are ongoing, from my assessment a lot still has to be done.
“We are here to sensitize the contractors that the target date of fourth quarter in 2022 remains sacrosanct as the Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva is very keen to complete the project and will soon visit the site later in the month to see things for himself,” Wabote said.
Wabote was accompanied by members of the NCDMB management team who were shown round various ongoing projects by representatives of the contractors.