FG Releases $200m Local Content Fund to BoI

•  Total to achieve first oil in Egina field by end of 2018

Ejiofor Alike and Peter Uzoho

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote, has stated that the federal government has released the $200 million Nigerian Content Development Fund (NCDF) to the Bank of Industry (BoI) for Nigerian oil and gas service providers.

This is coming as Total E & P has said it would strike its first oil in the 200,000 barrels per day Egina deepwater field by the end of 2018.

Also the Group Chief Executive Officer of Oando Plc and Chairman of OVH Energy, Mr. Wale Tinubu, has said the Lagos Midstream Jetty conceived by Oando Plc and built by ASPM Limited, a subsidiary of OVH Limited, would save the country no less than $50million yearly.

Speaking yesterday at the 7th Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) conference in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Wabote said the $200 million intervention fund was launched in the last one year for Nigerian oil and gas service providers that are contributors to the Nigerian Content Development Fund.

He further stated that the intervention fund has a single digit interest rate of eight per cent for loans extended to Nigerian oil and gas service providers and all in a single digit interest rate of five per cent for loans extended to community contractors.

As we speak, the required fund has been released to the Bank of Industry (BoI). The ball is now back in the court of the service providers to apply for this fund,” he said.

Wabote said the next target of the board was to ensure that the Nigerian Content Intervention Fund becomes fully operational and provides statistics for service providers and community contractors who have benefited.

“One of the first directives I gave upon resumption is that operators can assume they have received our consent if they did not get feedback from us within 15 working days. Beyond this, we have streamlined our internal processes at the Board such that NCDMB is now positioned to review contracts within 100 days provided submitted documents are in line with the NOGICD Act. I am happy to note that we have demonstrated this in the last one year as evidenced in the unprecedented completion time of tendering process for the Zabazaba project,” he explained.

Also speaking, the Chief Executive of Total E & P, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, and his Deputy in charge of the company’s deepwater district, Mr. Amadu- Kida Musa, disclosed that the company would record first its oil in the Egina field by the end of 2018.

Terraz said the Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) vessel for the field, which sailed away from the Goeje South Korea yard of Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) on October 31, 2017, has reached Taiwan and is on its three months journey to Nigeria.

According to him, the FPSO will arrive in Nigeria by the end of January 2018 for local integration in the Samsung Yard in Lagos before the vessel sails away to the Egina offshore field in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 130.
Terraz noted that despite the complexity of the $16 billion Egina project, his company achieved 77 per cent local content, compared to 44 per cent achieved in the Akpo deepwater field launched in 2006 and the 60 per cent achieved in Usan field launched in 2010.

On his part, Musa said the Egina project had demonstrated the Nigerian oil and gas industry’s commitment to local content, stressing that his company’s accomplishments exceeded the set targets.