The Federal Government through the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), has revealed that it will partner Waltersmith Petroleum Ltd. to build a modular refinery in Brass Island in Bayelsa.
The Executive Secretary of the board, Mr. Simbi Wabote, made the news public yesterday at the commissioning of a modular science laboratory at Model Government Secondary School, Twon Brass and an Information Communication Technology (ICT) Centre at Government Secondary School Okpoama, both in Brass Local Government Area of the state.
According to IgbereTV reports, he said that a number of investments opportunities were being considered by NCDMB for Brass Island.
“They include siting a modular refinery in partnership with Waltersmith Petroleum Ltd. and utilising feed stock from the Nigerian Agip Oil Company, which operates in the location.
“It is also a veritable location for even a dry dock facility or a floating dock facility. NCDMB is currently studying a strategy for establishing and enhancing all the existing dry dock facilities to maintain our ships, light crafts and also expand our integration base in the country,” he said.
He noted that the Island as a strategic location had the closest point from where one could access many of the Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) platforms that operate off the shores of Nigerian waters, including Bonga main.
Wabote said that some of the offshore oil and gas fields were currently being accessed from far locations like Lagos, with considerable cost implications.
He said that developing and utilising nearby locations like Brass Island for oil and gas logistics operations would help the industry meet the recent charge by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources for players in the industry to ensure a significant reduction in the cost per barrel of Nigeria’s crude oil production.
“Part of the strategy is to site logistics requirements where it is easy to access, reducing time, fuel consumption and improving Turn Around Maintenance (TAM) time.
“A serious study is going on currently to see the things that would be possible on the Island of Brass in order to bring down our cost of production,” he added.
Commenting on the donation of a laboratory and ICT Centre to the secondary schools in Brass, he said that it was part of effort to build capacity of Nigeria, which was in line with the mandate of the board.
“Capacity building is one of NCDMB’s key objectives and the agency had decided to promote such efforts from the primary school level up to the university level.
“So far, NCDMB had donated 25 ICT centres to secondary schools across the country and built the capacity of teachers in some states as part of its capacity building and corporate social responsibility programmes,” he said.
On strategies for maintaining the centres, Wabote explained that NCDMB had instituted a sustainability programme, which includes a one year management arrangement and training of staff and locals to operate the centres. He said that NCDMB would run periodic assessments of the facilities.
