From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

The Bayelsa State Government has called on the federal government to establish a liquefied natural gas terminal in the state to optimize economic benefits accruing from the gas sub-sector of the country’s petroleum industry.

The state Deputy Governor, Senator Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo made the call when the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Hon.

Ewhrudjakpo, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Doubara Atasi also stressed the need for the federal government to resume and complete work on the abandoned Brass Fertilizer Company for the general good of the country.

Describing Bayelsa as the headquarters of gas in Nigeria, the Deputy Governor lamented that the state had nothing commensurate to show for its huge natural gas endowment and contribution to the economic development of the nation.

According to him, about 60 percent of the total gas feedstock or supply to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal at Bonny Island was transported from Bayelsa.

He maintained that it would make a lot of economic sense for the Federal Government to establish another gas processing and export terminal in Bayelsa in its next phase of investment in the sub-sector to cut off the cost of transporting the raw material.

On the Brass Fertilizer Plant, the Deputy Governor said the State Government was prepared to partner all relevant federal authorities to ensure that work on the project takes off the ground.

He equally appealed to the visiting Minister to prevail on the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to ensure that companies handling fabrication components of contracts carried out such projects in the state to meaningfully engage youths in relevant areas.

In his remarks, the Minister of State for Petroleum (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo said his team was in Bayelsa to meet with the management of the NCDMB to work out modalities for improvement in the gas subsector of the petroleum industry.

He said the current federal government takes the issue of developing the gas subsector seriously with a view to reducing the cost of transportation in the country.

The Minister commended Governor Douye Diri for identifying with President Bola Tinubu, particularly his timely and mature handling of the “End Bad Governance” protest and thereby sustaining peace in the state.

“I am here in Bayelsa to meet with the NCDMB management team to deliberate and discuss the issue of gas; how we are going to progress in that sector. And of course, gas is the way to go today.

“The progress of Nigeria today depends on gas. With gas in total circulation, there would be reduction in transportation fare. The economy of this country does well with gas because we have it in abundance. That is why I am here.

“Let me use this opportunity to equally thank you and the Governor of Bayelsa State, for what I have heard that you have appointed two members of the APC as commissioners into your state executive council. This is how politics should be played, and I believe if we take it in this route, peace will be sustained.

“Thank you for maintaining peace in Bayelsa State. I heard on the first day of the end of the bad governance protest, when the boys came out, the Governor addressed them and asked them to relax; assuring everything would be put in place.

“I wouldn’t be here if there was continued protest in Bayelsa. So, I salute your courage; I salute your government, and I salute the people of Bayelsa State for identifying with President Ahmed Bola Tinubu,” he said.