Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has disclosed plans to soon begin the construction of a low-cost manufacturing hub for equipment components and spare parts that are used in the petroleum industry.
The facility, which is located at Ilaje, Ilaje Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State,
is one of six others that are being built in different parts of the country under NCDMB’s Nigerian Oil and Gas Park Scheme (NOGAPS) in furtherance of its corporate mandate to develop in-country capacity in the petroleum industry. Other NOGAPS, at Odukpani, Cross River State and at Emeyal, Bayelsa State, are already at 99 percent completion.
The Director for Monitoring and Evaluation at
NCDMB, Mr. Akintunde Adelana, told a gathering of top government functionaries, including the State’s Acting Governor, Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, industrialists and investors, as well as representatives of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the European Union (EU), that the Agency was conceived to provide a springboard to propel different sectors of the Nigerian economy.
He explained that the oil and gas industrial parks, developed by the Board in collaboration with Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) ExxonMobil and Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), with particular reference to NOGAPS, Emeyal 1 and NOGAPS, Odukpani, consist of manufacturing shop floors and factories, warehouses, training centres, mini estates, fire stations, truck parking and holding spaces, hostels and administrative blocks.
According him, the projects are intended to eliminate importation of equipment components and spares required in oil industry operations.