By Yemie Adeoye
The implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGIC) Act is geared towards establishing facilities in Nigeria and ensuring that they are patronized so as to bring Nigerian jobs back home.

The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, (NCDMB) Ernest Nwapa stated this recently during visits to Chevron Nigeria Limited and ExxonMobil on the first day of a week-long sensitization programme involving major Oil and Gas industry stakeholders in Lagos.

According to him, the emphasis of the Federal Government with the implementation of the Act is not only to retain the bulk of the annual oil and gas industry spend in the country, but ultimately to create employment for millions of Nigerians on the back of oil and gas industry operations.

He noted that most countries around the world are currently working towards bringing back jobs for their nationals in the wake of the global economic crisis, adding that this agenda of the Federal Government should be supported by all stakeholders.

While conceding that keeping the cost of production reasonable and meeting work schedules are critical to national revenue, Nwapa stressed that given Nigeria’s population of 150 million, the oil and gas industry which is the main stay of the economy needs to pay special attention to job creation.

The Executive Secretary explained that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the operating Joint Venture cannot employ more than 25,000 persons, adding however that several thousands of Nigerians will be employed if operating companies put jobs in the yards of local service companies and encouraged their traditional service providers to build facilities in Nigeria to execute their contracts locally.

He regretted that the preference for importing almost all the goods and services used by the industry from abroad is steadily eliminating opportunities to develop human and infrastructural capacity consequently impoverishing our people and stultifying national economic development.

He illustrated that, “Each major offshore production facility awarded to be fabricated in the traditional Asian fabrication yard translates to the export of over 1Billion Dollar capital from the Nigerian economy, 5000 Nigerian jobs in the two-year engineering and fabrication period and opportunity to train several thousand other Nigerians within same time frame.

“Such decisions also result in lost opportunity to upgrade existing yards and build new ones, crippled opportunity to attract investment for facilities and lost opportunities to grow partnerships between local and foreign companies.”

He stressed that such practices must stop, adding that compliance with provisions of the Act calls for a drastic change in the way the industry has been run for decades to achieve government’s aspirations.

Nwapa further asked the international oil companies to provide the Board with the concrete strategies they had adopted to ensure compliance with provisions of the Nigerian Content Act and meet the targets set by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke for the industry.

He pointed out that the board is set to invoke the non compliance sanctions prescribed in the Act for defaulting companies.
Specifically, he charged the companies to come up with individual strategies of putting work in the yards of Nigerian service companies, utilizing indigenously owned marine vessels and complying with the expatriate quota provisions of the Act.

The Executive Secretary maintained that foreign and local investors will not be encouraged to establish facilities in Nigeria with a view to bridging capacity gaps until they are convinced that existing facilities are being patronized by the industry.
He pledged that the board will be unwavering in enforcing compliance adding that, “We need to demonstrate to bidders and service providers that when you do not comply with provisions of the Act, you lose out from tenders.”

He also canvassed for a change of mindset by Nigerians holding executive and management positions in the operating companies to balance loyalty to employer with a responsibility to align with national objectives when advising their companies and taking key operations decisions.

In his comments, the Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria, Mr. Andrew Fawthrop commended NCDMB for initiating the engagement, which he said will build consensus on the implementation of the Act.

He explained that Chevron was committed to complying with the Act but pointed at some difficulties arising from absence of a transition period and insufficient capacity in certain areas.

He illustrated the dilemma of balancing government aspirations suggesting that “If you are seeing resistance, it is because we have goals to meet on oil production and gas delivery among other things and failure has got some penalties.”

In his comments, the Managing Director of ExxonMobil Nigeria, Mr. Mark Ward assured NCDMB that the company will be proactive in complying with the Act.

According to him, “You are going to see a different approach from ExxonMobil. We will not wait until we get everything right because doing nothing frustrates implementation.”