“That increase is making Egbin and all the other power plants around Lagos very stable. And we’re making sure that all the efforts we make we can measure them. I was very excited when I saw Simbi putting the outcome versus the input. So in upstream today, we don’t look at only the input and the output, but we go all along to capture and commend the outcome”, Wunti added.

Delivering the sponsor’s keynote address, the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and Waltersmith Petroman Oil Limited, Mr. Abdulrazaq Isa, announced that the NCDMB, which is an investor in the 5000 barrels per day Waltersmith modular refinery would be receiving its first dividend by the end of the 2022 financial year.

According to Isa, “After just 27 months of operations, NCDMB will receive its first dividend payment from the refinery for this financial year. We also forecast that by Q2 2023, the refinery will have paid off all its debt and commenced installation of another module of 5000 bpd.

“The Waltersmith Refinery which was enabled by NCDMB has been phenomenally successful.”

Isa also stated that the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, had been instrumental in driving the Decade of Gas policy, which aims to unlock over three billion cubic feet of gas per day.

He added that this would create significant benefits for Nigeria by attracting Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) in excess of $10 billion in addition to creation of millions of jobs across the gas value chain.

He posited that unlocking this gas potential within the decade would certainly involve big gas development projects, where the local content successes recorded on similar projects could be replicated.

He said the commitment of funds under the NCDMB’s commercial ventures partnership programme continues to stimulate investment and promote in-country capacity, adding that it was imperative that the role NCDMB had played through strategic investments and as a business catalyst on impactful projects were highlighted.

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Isa maintained that the Waltersmith refinery was a notable example of efforts of the NCDMB to promote local content through active financial participation in businesses that have huge local values.

He disclosed that the refinery has enhanced value-add from the industry by increasing local refining capacity, creating employment opportunities, and delivering diesel, kerosene, naphtha and High Fuel Oil (HFO) into the domestic market.

In his remarks, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, revealed that the board has achieved 54 per cent local content retention level in the Nigerian oil and gas industry in 2022.

According to him, the push for Nigerian Content as envisaged in the agency’s 10-year Strategic Roadmap has continued to yield results in the last five years, pointing out that out of the 96 initiatives under the strategic roadmap, NCDMB has completed 77.

“It is my pleasure to announce that the 2022 Nigerian Content level in the Nigerian oil and gas industry is 54 per cent based on our monitoring and evaluation of industry activities which bring the average in the last five years to 44 per cent Nigerian Content level.

“Once again, this performance is well above the minimum target of 42 per cent NC set for 2022 by the Board’s Project Management Office (PMO) just like we outperformed the 38 per cent NC target set for 2021 by achieving 42 per cent Nigerian Content.”

He listed the top-three performers of in-country spend in 2022 as Fabrication and Construction at 99 per cent NC, Manpower at 81 per cent NC, and Project Management at 80 per cent NC, while the bottom-3 performers were Procurement at 34 per cent NC, Engineering at 46 per cent NC, and Services at 50 per cent NC.

He noted that the Practical Nigerian Content Forum was a flagship event of the Board which attracts major stakeholders in the oil and gas industry from across Nigeria.

“The event serves as an opportunity to showcase the practical investment opportunities and achievements by NCDMB in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and its linkage sectors.

“It also hosts senior government officials, heads of International and Indigenous Oil Companies, and exhibitions of industry products and services in the upcoming event.”

However, in their separate interventions during the panel session moderated by the pioneer Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Dr. Ernest Nwapa, the Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor; Managing Director of TotalEnergies Upstream Nigeria Limited, Mr. Mike Sangster; Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Mr. Rick Kennedy; and Deputy Managing Director of NLNG, Mr. Olalekan Ogunleye, harped on the need to address the challenges confronting operators in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

They listed such issues as insecurity, high operational costs, unfavourable fiscal policies and other such bottlenecks that make Investments in the industry especially achieving the Decade of Gad agenda difficult.

Thisday