The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board says it is fast-tracking the approval of five oil and gas projects.
The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Felix Ogbe, stated that the board had applied the presidential directives in approving the five oil and gas projects currently in the funnel.
Ogbe, speaking at the recent African Energy Week in Cape Town, South Africa, hinted that the expected production values of those projects are one billion standard cubic feet of gas per day and 350,000 barrels of crude oil per day.
A statement by the local content board quoted the executive secretary as stressing the importance of approving business proposals without delay.
Commenting on strategies that would ensure sustainable local content development in African nations, Ogbe stated that local content has to be promoted as a national agenda and supported by all institutions, businesses, decision-makers, investors and citizens.
As part of the strategies to increase Nigeria’s crude oil production and enhance revenue accruing to the national treasury, the NCDMB boss emphasised the need for having a week each year dedicated to signing final investment decisions on new oil and gas projects.
A final investment decision is the final point in an energy project, in which the company or partners owning and operating a project give the final approval for the development, releasing the funding for the commencement.
Ogbe stated that the FID Week, if adopted, could be incorporated into the existing annual international oil and gas conferences and would feature international and Indigenous operating companies.
He posited that dedicating a week every year for FID signing could compel companies and relevant regulators to fast-track their processes to meet the deadline.
He also indicated that the proposal for the annual FID Week has already been broached to the Special Adviser on Energy to President, Mrs Olu Verheijen, and the leadership of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited and international operating companies and was being considered.
Represented at the African Energy Week by the Director, Projects Certification and Authorization Division, Abayomi Bamidele, the NCDMB boss said the proposal for an annual FID Week was geared to address the insufficient FIDs signed by the operating companies and the limited number of new projects being developed in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
These “worrisome” developments, he said, contributed to Nigeria’s dwindling crude oil production and the negative impact on revenue.
He suggested that the Nigerian oil and gas industry needed to have at least one or two final investment decisions on major projects to be signed every year, to catalyse activity in the local service sector and the national economy and ultimately increase crude oil and gas production and revenue for the country.
He harped on the three presidential directives rolled out by President Bola Tinubu in March for the oil and gas industry, stating that NCDMB had complied fully with the directives as it relates to fast-tracking the contracting cycle and eliminating middlemen with no demonstrable capacity from participating in the oil and gas value chain.
He said the board now pays attention to local content compliance, the reduction of petroleum sector contracting costs and timelines as well as the presidential directive on oil and gas companies tax incentives, exemption, remission, among others.
