A renewal of the partnership between the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) will deepen integration of content development in downstream operations in the Oil and Gas industry.

Focus area is on the turn-around maintenance planned for the nation’s three major refineries within the next two years.

This was agreed when the Board received the top management of NNPC led by the Group Executive Director, Refineries and Petrochemicals, Mr. Anthony Ogbuigwe at its headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State recently.

Speaking at the meeting, the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa charged operators in the downstream sector to comply with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Content Development (NOGICD) Act. This, he said will engender job creation, spur local equipment manufacturing, retain spend, transfer technology and deliver other benefits of implementation.

He noted that appreciable progress had been achieved in the upstream subsector of the industry where the Board set up an effective process for interfacing with operators and service companies to positively influence their activities. He also pointed out that a similar model was needed to be worked out for the downstream.

To achieve this, Nwapa said institutional synergies must be enhanced at strategic levels, where the Board will be able to obtain the subsector’s long term plans. He said that this will assist the board to identify opportunities, devise programmes and interface points that will best grow Nigerian Content in the downstream without disrupting operations.

He further explained that certain capacities the Board had grown in the upstream subsector could be utilised for downstream operations. Some of these include the turn-around maintenance of refineries, but this could only happen if the Board is endowed with the subsector’s strategic and operational plans.

The Executive Secretary also said that due to upstream operations demands, the Board had successfully attracted original equipment manufacturers like Siemens, ABB, Endress & Hauser, General Electric and GCA, Neway and others to set up plants in Nigeria. He added that Shell had already announced strategic support to some of the OEMs.

According to him, three pipe mills being planned for Nigeria by WSP, Yulong and Vigeo were entering into construction phases while SCC, the existing pipe mill in the country is now being patronised by the operating companies.

He further charged the NNPC team, which included the managing directors of the three existing refineries and other top management members to work out the demands of their companies for heat exchangers, valves and other components needed for regular maintenance of the refineries and petrochemical plants.

Nwapa explained that such demand will strengthen the business case the Board had built for the establishment of manufacturing facilities and other capacity building efforts to support industry operations.

He noted that this was the first time that top NNPC management was formally engaging the Board in Yenagoa since the enactment of the Content Act, adding that this collaboration was essential to achieving content aspirations which were spearheaded by the NNPC.

He said, “Under the leadership of the Hon Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, it is important to demonstrate to the industry that all stakeholders on the Government side are united in the pursuit of Nigerian Content implementation.

Whilst we have always taken NNPC’s support for granted, operational and practical buy-in of NNPC will provide the impetus required to do even bigger things in Nigeria.”

In his comments, Ogbuigwe pointed out that the downstream subsector has witnessed substantial Nigerian Content growth in the past, but that his team wanted such developments to be structured. He expressed the hope that collaborating with the Board will help realise this.

He also expressed regrets that the nation’s refineries had not undergone proper maintenance in many years, adding that a lot of rehabilitation was being scheduled within the next 24 months to bring them to efficient performance levels.

He gave the assurance that the TAM projects will have high Nigerian Content values, adding that the original manufacturers of the refineries whom the Federal Executive Council had approved to handle the jobs were told to compulsorily use local engineering firms, support companies and equipment for the exercise.