NCDMB: Local Content Participation in Oil, Gas Industry Rose 107% in Five Years

•Says two of the ongoing industrial gas parks ready in 2024 

•2,900 oil wells shut, 40% induced by oil theft, says NUPRC

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The Nigerian Content Development And Monitoring Board (NCDMB) yesterday disclosed that local content in the oil and gas sector grew from 26 per cent to 54 per cent in the last five years, a rise by about 107 per cent during the period.

Speaking during the opening of the 2023 edition of the annual Nigerian Oil And Gas (NOG) Energy Week in Abuja, the Chief Executive of the NCDMB, Mr Simbi Wabote, noted that between 2017 and 2022 Nigerian companies’ participation in the industry rose from 26 per cent to 54 per cent.

The law setting up the board was passed in 2010 by the Goodluck Jonathan government, following the seeming domination of the sector by expatriates. The organisation was thereafter charged to ensure the domiciliation of activities in the sector.

At event themed: “Powering Nigeria’s Sustainable Energy Future”, Wabote stated that the organisation has given effect to the provisions of the law by launching the 10-year strategic roadmap in 2018 to drive the attainment of 70 per cent Nigerian content in the Nigerian oil and gas industry by 2027.

“In the last five years of implementation of the strategic roadmap, the board has more than doubled the level of Nigerian content in the industry by moving the needle from 26 per cent in 2017 to 54 per cent in 2022,” the executive secretary noted.

According to him, another key function of the board as stated in Section 70(d)  mandates the board to supervise, coordinate, administer, and monitor the development of Nigerian content as specified in the Schedule to the Act.

He further reminded operators that it was important to get the Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate (NCCC) signed off for every contract awarded by the operators.

“I therefore implore all operators to ensure that the NCCC is signed off with the board to avoid delays in getting related approvals or getting sanctioned for implementing contracts without the required regulatory certification,” he stated.

Wabote disclosed at the end of June 2023, the NCDMB had 290,000 individual records, 10,400 service company records, 107 operator company records, and about 600 Marine Vessel records contained on the board’s Joint Qualification System (JQS) portal.

He reiterated that the board has embarked on several initiatives, including funding support and other initiatives that are skewed towards developing both human capital and infrastructure, including the $300 million Nigerian Content Intervention Fund, the $100 million matched fund, the $50 million R&D Intervention Fund and the $50million manufacturing fund.

Due to the challenges identified in the area of manufacturing, the board, he said, is also providing assistance to local businesses by developing the industrial gas parks to provide modern infrastructure using the to support in-country manufacturing.

“The industrial parks are at various stages of development in seven states namely:  Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Imo, and Ondo states.

“The NOGAPS Industrial Parks at Odukpani in Cross River state and the one at Emeyal-1 in Bayelsa state are both at advanced stages of completion and will commence operations in 2024. We have commenced allocation of manufacturing shopfloors and services plots to qualified applicants,” he disclosed.

Also speaking during a panel session on: “Accessing Funding and Creating an Enabling Environment for Nigerian Content to Thrive”, the Executive Commissioner, Development and Production of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), Dr Habib Nuhu, disclosed that 2,900 oil wells were currently shut in the country.

Nuhu added that 40 per cent of the figure was due to oil theft and urged the industry to work together to eradicate the menace of vandalism and oil theft.

He further said that if the oil industry must make progress, the economics environment must be conducive in order to bounce back to optimum investment.

He added that some gas projects were current going on around the country that are expected to come on-stream soon, with the commission ready to ensure a level playing field for all operators.

Nuhu stated that no investor will want to put in their money and their crude output stolen by another party. He added that if the industry must deliver value there must be a conscious debottlenecking of the challenges in the sector.

In his comments, the Managing Director of Coleman Cables and Wires, George Onafowokan, decried the various barriers to entry in the industry, explaining that any firm that does a risk analysis of its investment will be scared to do so.