From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has canvassed industry-wide support for initiatives that would reverse negative trends in Nigeria’s energy sector.The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Felix Omatsola Ogbe in a paper entitled “Resolving the Nigerian Energy Trilemma: Energy Security, Sustained Growth, and Affordability,” identified “alarming scale of pipeline vandalism and theft of crude oil” as the biggest threats to Nigeria’s energy security.

He noted that major oil and gas projects are required as well as a robust security strategy based on mutually beneficial collaboration with host communities. Saying to achieve the above objectives, the Board has undertaken to work with stakeholders in the industry to dedicate one week in every calendar year to signing Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on new projects, as prospective investors could be motivated to act expeditiously to meet agreed-upon deadlines and regulators are similarly encouraged.Ogbe noted that FDIs would “catalyze new projects in the Nigerian oil and gas industry,” and that fruitful collaboration amongst stakeholders and NCDMB would actualize the intentions of the Presidential Directives rolled out in March 2024 by The Presidency, and thus “fast-track the contracting cycle and incentivize investments in our sector.”The NCDMB boss, who was represented by the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Esueme Dan Kikile, Esq.suggested that the FDI Week be incorporated into any of the major oil, gas and energy conferences held in the country.According to him, the Board holds a similar biennial event called Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF), which is attended by all the international and indigenous operating companies to share awareness of opportunities and projects to be executed.On the Board’s strategy to create a safe and secure operating environment for oil and gas companies and thus eliminate the huge costs associated with vandalism and attacks on personnel and installations, the Executive Secretary disclosed that NCDMB has introduced a new policy known as “Back to the Creeks Initiative.”According to him, “We are convinced at the Board that the incessant tampering with crude oil pipelines and hostilities in oil-producing communities have a huge impact on energy security,” and that the new initiative is geared towards curtailing incidences of disruptions of oil industry operations through targeted interventions.These include execution of corporate social responsibility projects in communities, provision of affordable finance to local contractors, upgrade of basic educational facilities in villages and communities, building the capacity of teachers and improving the infrastructure at that level.The initiative, whose details would soon be publicized, is expected to create a stakeholder feeling in host communities and make them view industry assets around them as facilities that are bound up with their socio-economic well-being.Such an orientation would translate into safety of assets, increased crude oil production, drastically reduced security costs and more favourable pricing of petroleum products.