Buhari To Immortalize Oloibiri, Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Birth Place- Sylva
By YANGE IKYAA
The government of President Muhammadu Buhari has adopted a strategic action to immortalize Oloibiri and industrialize Bayelsa State through the establishment of the Oil and Gas Museum and Research Center in Oloibiri, where Nigeria’s first commercial oil well was drilled, resulting in the discovery of crude oil on January 15, 1956.
This is according to Timipre Sylva, who is Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum resources, while delivering a keynote speech at the ongoing 10th edition of Practical Nigerian Content Conference in the Bayelsa State capital, Yenagoa, with the theme: “Driving Nigerian Content in the Dawn of the Petroleum Industry Act.”
His address was at the instance of the “Practical Nigerian Content (PNC) Workshop” organized by the Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and DMG Events, in partnership with the Bayelsa State Government.
The Oil and Gas Museum and Research Center in Oloibiri is also being developed jointly by NCDMB, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund, Shell Petroleum Development Company and the Bayelsa State government.
The minister further itemized other strategic actions by the Federal Government to industrialize Bayelsa State include the various oil and gas investments now crystalizing in various parts of the state, such as the Nigerian Oil and Gas Parks Scheme (NOGAPS), the Brass Petroleum Products Terminal Limited (BPPT), the Brass Fertilizer Project and Methanol Plant, as well as a gas processing plant and a modular refinery, among others.
“It deserves to be mentioned that PNC has continued grow every year because NCDMB has consistently broken new grounds with the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act,” the minister stressed, adding further that “the great accomplishments of the Board, as well as the activities of other key agencies under the ministry of petroleum resources have positioned our ministry as a top performer in the Presidential Scorecard, assessed by the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation.”
He therefore enjoined NCMDB to continue on its commendable upward trajectory and to stay focused on the implementation of the Nigerian Content 10-Year Strategic Roadmap to grow Nigerian content to the targeted level of 70% by 2027.
According to the minister, there is no question that President Muhammadu Buhari has booked his place on the bright side of history, particularly of the Nigerian oil and gas industry, by ensuring the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act into law after over 20 years of debates and disagreements of the shape of the law.
“Signing the Bill into law in August is a watershed event in the annals of Nigeria’s petroleum industry which has literally rolled away the cloud of uncertainty that has hindered investments into the industry for so long; hence, we took quick and decisive steps by establishing the Board of the NNPC Limited, constituted the management teams for the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Authority,” he said.
With the PIA now in place and supported by the enabling structures to ease doing of business, Sylva said that the government expects
new Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) to be taken rapidly in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
