Bayelsa State former and current Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, has stepped up official efforts towards ensuring that the final investment decision for the Train-7 project of the Nigeria LNG Limited is taken before the end of October this year.
Accordingly, he has issued executive directive to all relevant government agencies to close ranks in the process for seamless delivery of the target.
A statement sent by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) weekend announced the submission of the Nigerian content compliance requirements for the project by the NLNG which is key to the minister’s target.
The Train-7 project is expected to ramp up NLNG’s production capacity by 35 per cent from 22 million tonnes per annum to 30 MTPA.
The statement quoted Executive Secretary of the Board, Mr Simbi Wabote as saying that “The minister was very keen on Train-7 project as it would create jobs, enhance participation of Nigerian businesses in the oil and gas sector and address insecurity in the region.”
“Thus, the minister of state has directed that any encumbrance related to the FID of Train-7 must be addressed by all agencies of the ministry so that FID is taken in a matter of weeks,” the statement said.
To be on same page with Minister’s drive, Wabote assured that the board would complete the review of the submitted Nigerian content requirements and revert to the NLNG within a few days.
Already, a team from the NLNG led by the Managing Director, Mr Tony Attah, had met with Wabote last week to formally submit the outcome of its recently concluded commercial evaluation exercise of the multibillion-dollar Train-7 project.
The statement further added that “This submission represents the penultimate step of the board’s project certification and authorisation procedure in compliance with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Act of 2010.”
Attah, who commended the board’s support at every stage of the process, recalled that although the previous LNG trains were built before the enactment of the NOGICD Act 2010, the NLNG made it a point of duty to fully comply with the requirements of the Act for the Train-7 project.
