The Governor of Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Akeredolu, has given additional insights on the target of the state government in tracking new developments in the gas sector with leading International Oil Companies (IOCs) and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
In an interview, he said apart from stimulating and boosting the economy of the state, more jobs will be created and critical infrastructure will be coming with the scheme.
He revealed that the scheme was part of the economic diversification plans of his administration which he rolled out during his inaugural speech.
Akeredolu said “We were at the meeting that has the Chief of Staff directly and what we have come to do is on the economic diversification initative. As you are all aware, sometime in June, we had our summit in Akure. And following the summit, we had about five points that we needed to take up now”.
“We have to come in and to hold meeting with all stakeholders, including NNPC, Chevron, Shell and others, and even some of our investors, to discuss. Because we need to be on a spot; it is a one stop shop so that we discuss these initiatives”
The governor added that “We have made progress in our discussion. What Ondo State is particular about, NNPC was able to even enlighten us the more. We were particular about being on the gas plant and it has been made clear to us that we have always been on the national gas plant, and that all that is now needed is for us to decide what and what to be done. We have the OK LNG and we felt that something has to be done there.
“NNPC has put a lot of effort to have that place developed but part of their partnership withdrew from it but if Ondo State is now keenly interested, we can get some of the investors to come and have OK LNG take off again for the purpose which it was established and other purposes which can be accommodated.
“So, these are the discussions we have had and in other to push this, we now have to put together a working committee that is going to work on all our discussions and in the next four week, we are back to now continue with our work”, he said
Explaining more on the safety and security of oil pipelines, the governor stressed that Ondo had been a peaceful state and will remain so. This according to him, will translate to safety and security of gas installations and operatives of the industry.
