NOGAP will save foreign exchange when completed, says Wabote
EXECUTIVE Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board ( NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has declared that the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks ( NOGAP) in Emeyal- 1, Bayelsa State, will save the country foreign exchange when completed.
Wabote, who disclosed this yesterday in Emeyal- 1, Ogbia Council of the state, during an inspection tour of the parks, said barring any unforeseen circumstances, the parks would be completed in the first quarter of 2022, as the contractors had been working according to schedule.
He also said the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, would visit the parks this month to see things for himself.
Wabote said one major challenge of the country’s oil and gas industry was local manufacturing, saying the idea of the scheme was to incubate local manufacturing and drastically reduce importation of finished products. “The benefits of the parks to the industry, economy and the nation are tremendous. One challenge that we have in the oil and gas industry is local manufacturing. Most of the finished products are imported. So, the idea behind the oil and gas scheme is to incubate those manufacturing locally. “Therefore, to a large extent, it will save the much- needed foreign exchange for the nation. Most importantly, it will create jobs for our people and we will get many people engaged and it will enhance our capacity and bring about technological innovation, because most of those manufacturing activities will be done here.
“Primarily, one of the challenges in manufacturing industry has to do with power. We have been able to conquer that on this site. We have already built a 10megawatts gas- fired power plant, so the site has guaranteed power.
“It will create jobs for the community. It will have a spin- off effect on other economic activities. So, the benefits are enormous to the extent that I can’t recount all of them,” he stated.
He said he was impressed with the quality of work so far, noting that the idea behind the facility was to get as many contractors as possible onto the site to set standard and they were all working towards that standard.