NCDMB highlights three vital Presidential directives that speed up oil industry contracts being sealed
Without the media breaking down all the complex messaging to diverse audiences, informing the public about the NCDMB possibly would have had a lesser impact and so the Board's executive secretary thanked the journalists at a special breakfast meeting with the media.
Further efforts to ease up the sealing of future oil and gas industry deals or contracts have led to more initiatives by President Bola Tinubu’s administration, which has listed three vital approaches that are meant to drastically cut down the length of awarding projects to bidders.
The flesh and details of this latest agenda imagine having middlemen removed from the value chain of closing an important deal. This was part of the announcement by Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe on Monday 7 October 2024.
Yesterday at a breakfast meeting with media execs in Lagos, the Board’s Executive Secretary shared about what the future will hold. Most notable will be the impact of shortening the oil industry contracting cycle to six months. It is one of the benefits of the president’s local content-targeted special orders introduced about six months ago.
Since March when the three directives were issued, NCDMB has been working on perfecting the process. And so when the opportunity presented itself to reveal all that had been achieved so far, Engr. Ogbe duly spilled as much as he could. He said that his organisation is now in full compliance with the Presidential Directive on Local Content Compliance Requirements, 2024 (EO 41).
ALSO READ: NCDMB links up with education partner UBEC to equip young learners for future oil and gas needs
This compliance requirement wants to make sure that only local services and their proven exceptional abilities can participate in oil industry tenders. One presidential directive focuses on the Reduction of Petroleum Sector Contracting Costs and Timelines, 2024 (EO 42) and NCDMB says it is highly on top of this.
In the Board’s view, compliance will attract new international and local investments, encourage speedy development of oil and gas projects and improve the Nigerian economy.
Very soon, the Executive Secretary hinted, plans to launch a major initiative tagged “Back to the creeks” will unfold. If and when this policy comes alive, it will assist with delivering benefits to oil-producing communities because that is what would make sense to resources southern Nigeria citizens who sometimes get a feeling of being marginalised despite the climate and ecological burden of having fossil fuels being mined close to them.
If it was once thought that local content implementation increases the cost of producing crude oil in Nigeria, Engr. Felix Ogbe dismissed that. Instead, he explained that what are actually the major drivers of the increased cost of crude oil production are downtime and disruptions in operations when there are conflicts with locals, as well as technical glitches.
Another reason ties in with security. On the Board’s strategy sheet to enable every player for maximum growth, NCDMB is intentionally nurturing an environment that lets international oil companies (IoCs) make new investment decisions and there will be insurance coverage and its multiplier effect.
On one hand, engineering companies or other services that now have the opportunity to execute contracts can secure a financial net to support what they do, and the insurers and business portfolio will be energised by more clients than they were used to.
Without the media breaking down all the complex messaging to diverse audiences, informing the public about NCDMB possibly would have had a lesser impact and so the executive secretary thanked the journalists that were present. In his view, the partnership will only continue.
This checks with what the Board’s General Manager for Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Mr. Esueme Dan Kikile, confirmed while at Monday’s breakfast get-together. Familiarising with newsmen was the objective with Engr. Ogbe leading.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
