Wabote: How NCDMB Summit Raised In-country Participation in NLNG Train7 to 50%

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja  

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr Simbi Wabote, yesterday disclosed that the floating of the biennial Nigerian Oil & Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF), partly helped boost in-country participation to 50 per cent in the ongoing $5 billion NLNG Train 7 project.

Speaking during a press briefing in Abuja, on the 2023 edition of the event coming up in Yenagoa, Bayelsa state, next month, Wabote posited that while the involvement of Nigerians in the building of the Trains 1-6 was near zero, the gas facility under construction has Nigerians now largely represented.

The fair brought together major players across the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, including government agencies, industry regulators and the National Assembly to showcase opportunities in the sector and present available in-country capacity.

“One of the greatest successes that we did record in this programme is that if you look at the NLNG Train 1-6, during its construction phase, if you go and check the level of Nigerian participation, it was near zero because LNG technology was alien to us and the activities there.

“Everything practically was done outside the country, if you take it from trains 1-6, but with the advent of NOGOF today, 50 per cent of the activities in LNG Train 7 is being done by Nigerians.

“This is because we provided the information which enabled them to prepare themselves to participate in that project and I sincerely believe if we want to build another train, I can assure you that almost 70 per cent of it will be done by Nigerians in-country,” Wabote stressed.

 He explained that in line with previous editions, this year’s NOGOF would foster institutional collaboration, maximise participation of Nigerians in oil and gas activities, link the oil and gas sector to other sectors of the economy and also maximise the utilisation of Nigeria resources.

 “Talking about the LNG, if you want to extrapolate the value that the 50 per cent is, I think the LNG project is a total of $5 billion end-to-end and 50 per cent of that is being handled in-country and by Nigerians. That’s a significant leap and this only happened because we provided a lot of Nigerians the opportunity,” he added.

The event, the fourth in the series, holding on May 18th and 19th, he said, has its theme as: “The Oil and Gas Industry: Catalyst and Fuel for the Industrialisation of Nigeria.”

He explained that the theme was important as it highlights the critical role of the oil and gas industry in fuelling industrialisation and overall development of the Nigerian economy, with its focus on linkage industries even beyond Nigeria.

He noted that NCDMB was also helping other African countries build their local content development models, stressing that while in the past, the industry spent $21 billion year-on-year, less than five per cent remained in the country.

“Virtually everything was done outside this country. Today, 54 per cent of that is retained in-country in terms of monetary value and activities,” he explained.

The executive secretary noted that the agenda for this year’s event include technical opportunity sessions for various stakeholders and exhibition that would enable networking opportunities for delegates and give organisations the opportunity to distinguish themselves and present their activities or products to delegates.

Stressing that Artificial Intelligence would not take over the job of humans, he argued that the world should take advantage of the advantages that come with the AI space, explaining that humans will still build robots and operate them.

He, however said the challenge was in retooling and reskilling to meet with the new demands.

Wabote stated that the NCDMB would review the progress made by the board sometimes by taking counts of how many local businesses are growing in the oil and gas sector in terms of engineering, fabrication, procurement and construction.

“Last year, we got into the statistics and it was 54 per cent in terms of local content and our plan is that we will hit the 70 per cent mark by 2027. We’re very much on track, because within that plan, we had short, medium and long term things that we must do to be able to achieve that 70 per cent.  So we’re very much on track on that,” he said.

According to him, it’s difficult if not impossible to achieve 100 per cent self-sufficiency because as a technologically driven sector, there’s rarely any country that depends on itself wholly.

Earlier, the Director, Monitoring & Evaluation, NCDMB and NOGOF 2023 Project Director, Akintunde Adelana, said the previous editions had been hugely successful, stressing that this year’s version would even be bigger and better.

Also, the Managing Director of Jake Riley and NOGOF project consultant, Funmi Ogbue, who spoke on what to expect this year, promised participants an unforgettable experience at the fair.