BY KUNLE KALEJAYE

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has threatened to shut down oil and gas companies that fail to comply with the federal government’s policy on local content development.

The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, who spoke against the backdrop of non-compliance with the Nigerian Content Act, said, “Very soon, companies that are not serious in supporting government programs will be shut down, they will go,”

Speaking at the inauguration of the International Association of Drilling Contractors, IADC Nigeria Chapter, in Lagos, Nwapa, said the board would ensure more rig ownership by indigenous companies.

He said, “We want more indigenous participation in rigs. The future of doing business in Nigeria is to see that indigenous participation continues to grow. This policy has come to stay and there is no going back.

“Most of the companies that get jobs in Nigeria if it is a marine vessel contract, they will get it and they will go to a foreign vessel owner to give him the money and collect about five per cent commission.

“The same is the case with the rigs because for most of the rigs that come here to work, some of them come for between $150,000 and $500,000, a day. How much of that money is kept in the Nigerian economy?

“Ownership is a step towards learning how to maintain and learning how to build. If we keep getting our vessels from Europe, most of the vessel owner will send their vessel back to Europe, America and Indian for repair and maintenance but having a Nigeria owned vessel, we will see a different approach,” he said.

From studies conducted by the board on the country’s capacity to implement indigenous participation, Nwapa argued that Nigeria is competent, adding that both indigenous and foreign companies are willing to come in and invest.

“If we have issues of companies leaving, there are many companies who are dying to come in, both foreign and Nigerians. The reality is that we must take the issue of trade acquisition seriously.

“The time has passed when people say that Nigeria cannot do marine vessel. We have seen companies like Oando demonstrating that they can buy, what they need to do is to learn a little bit more on how to operate efficiently and how to operate on a commercially competitive basis,” he asserted.

He insisted that Nigeria must bring back lost jobs that are scattered in other parts of the world, adding that the country’s performance level in engineering and fabrication are quite high.

He said: “We must bring back our jobs. Our footprints are everywhere in the world, be it in the manufacturing industry or engineering. In our performance level, we have about 90 per cent in engineering, 50 per cent on fabrication and seven per cent on manufacturing.

The NCDMB boss further explained that the delayed passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill, PIB, may be a blessing in disguise, saying, “Without the PIB being passed, there are still appetites for investments. The delay passage might just be a blessing in disguise that will enable us to enhance our capacity.

“For us to be a great oil producing company, Nigeria must have a robust chain supply in industrialization which covers pipelines and mechanic shops, asset ownership and manufacturing.

He, however, lamented that the use of made in Nigeria goods in executing projects in the sector has significantly dropped to about 12 per cent.

With regard to transporting crude with Nigerian own vessel,  Nwapa argued, “If we can ship LNG owned by Nigeria, what is so big about crude oil that we don’t have one barrel of crude oil transported by a Nigerian owner tanker. That is the big question that the board is asking the industry and we believe that in the next two years, Nigeria crude oil will be carried in tankers that are owned by Nigerians.”

He commended the IADC for creating a platform that will serve as an interface with government adding that the association should be inaugurated properly into the Nigerian content consultative forum business and featured in the initiative that centers on excellence for human capacity development in Nigeria which the board has created.