Dead on Target

THE Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, has met one of the mid-term targetsset for it by Diezani Alison-Madueke, minister of petroleum resources. The board’s target is to establish a pipe mill that would help define the success of the Nigerian Content Act.When completed, the pipe mill will help meet the annual industry line pipe demand estimated at more than 800,000 tonnes per annum, arising from the projected demands from gas master plan, replacement of aged pipes and development of new fields.

Already, the NCDMB has formally acquired a 10.2-hectare of land in Polaku community, in the outskirts of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, for the construction of the proposed Pipe mill. The site has a shore line for the construction of a jetty and is near the Shell Gbaran gas plant and the National Integrated Power Plant being developed by the federal government in Gbaran.

The land acquisition marked the commencement of the project as the board will immediately begin preparation of the site ahead of detailed investment. The formal groundbreaking ceremony of the project will be held soon as all hands are  on deck to kick start the project.

Speaking during the symbolic cheque presentation for the land to the Ezewaribo Family and transfer of deed to NCDMB at the Board’s Headquarters in Yenagoa, Ernest Nwapa, the executive secretary of NCDMB, thanked the people of the  the community for their support. Nwapa, who was represented by Akintunde Adelana, director of monitoring and evaluation, NCDMB, explained that the project’s construction as well as operations would drive development in the oil and gas industry and provide thousands of training and employment opportunities for members of the community and other Nigerians.

“The pipe mill project will be a major economic activity. It is one of the key industries that has been lacking in the Nigerian  oil and gas sector and your community is lucky that it will be established in your vicinity,” he added.

Responding, Martins Aweibo, leader of the Ezewaribo Family, thanked the Board for attracting the pipemill project to the community and expressed the hope that it would help transform the fortunes of the people. “We want the project to take off immediately because it will benefit my family, Bayelsa State and Nigeria in general,” he stated. Aweibo also assured the Board and the proposed investors that members of the community were peaceful and would not present any problem to the project.