Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has taken a swipe at the major players in the nation oil and gas industry over the implementation of the local Content Policy of the federal government.
He said the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta were yet to benefit from the policy due to its faulty implementation.
But the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Maduake, Group Managing Director of NNPC differed in their submissions describing the Nigerian Content Act policy as a success story.
Governor Seriake Dickson of Bayelsa State has taken a swipe at the major players in the nation oil and gas industry over the implementation of the local Content Policy of the federal government.
He said the oil producing communities in the Niger Delta were yet to benefit from the policy due to its faulty implementation.
But the minister of petroleum resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Maduake, Group Managing Director of NNPC differed in their submissions describing the Nigerian Content Act policy as a success story.
Dickson who spoke while declaring open the 2nd Practical Nigerian Content Conference in Yenagoa said the governors in the region have discovered a low percentage of indigenes of oil bearing communities involved in the implementation of the policy.
Speaking on the topic, Local Content Policy and its impact on the national economy, he said, "what should have been included in what we call a sub-local content for the indigenes of the oil communities some of these contents contained in the local content policy are not so content. What we have discovered is a story of neglect and devastation. If you take a census of those involved in the implementation and ownership of oil well, vessels and others, they are not from these devastated communities.
"These top players in the sourcing and lifting of crude from these devastated communities don't have offices here in the Niger Delta. We have discovered that we produce the oil and these other states take the wealth at our own detriment. Some of these top operators become millionaires and develop other states but they breed militants, create unemployment, environmental degradation in the region."
Dickson called on the oil multinationals and the Local Content Board headed by Engr. Ernest Nwanpa to assist the governors of the Niger Delta region as they push to solve the recurrent challenges of unemployment and the rising need to create wealth for youth empowerment in the region.
"What the people call oil bloc is somebody's ancestral land," he declared and stressed the need for more involvement of the local community in resources exploited on their land.
"The local content matter is so dear to us as we are confronted with the issues of creating jobs and wealth and we will like to encourage greater participation of our people in the industry."
Also speaking at the event, the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Engineer Andy Yakubu pledged to partner with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board in growing Nigerian Content in the oil and gas industry to the 70 per cent target set by the Federal Government, especially in the complex deep offshore.
He said the participation of Nigerian Content in the industry, especially in the upstream has increased from a mere 10 per cent before the enactment of the law to more than 30 per cent, sitting example with the recent USAN Deep Offshore Field development.
"These percentages are even higher and in some cases have attained 100 per cent, for example the Utorogu Gas Plant Expansion Project," he said.
The GMD listed other projects with high Nigerian Content value to include the OB3 Pipeline Project, Escravos Lagos Pipeline Phase 2, the Aba Depot and Okirika Jetty Rehabilitation Project.
He explained that windows of opportunities to grow Nigerian Content exist in the upstream, midstream and downstream segments of the oil and gas value chain.
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