Indigenous oil firm hails NCDMB for jobs, capacity development in oil sector

By Shedrack Frank

An indigenous oil services company, Kenyon International West Africa (Ltd) on Saturday applauded the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for creating jobs for Nigerian companies in oil sector.

Mr Paul Ubong, a Field Engineer with Kenyon, made the commendation while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the sidelines of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunities Fair 2023 (NOGOF 2023) at NCDMB facility in Yenagoa.

Ubong noted that Nigerian companies had grown in leaps and bounds under the regulatory guides of NCDMB which drastically reduced the influx of expatriates in the oil and gas industry.

He recalled that Kenyon stepped in to halt the leak at Aiteo’s Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29 when a U.S. based company engaged by the operator could not deploy personnel to site.

Ubong observed that NOGOF 2023 showcased available project opportunities for Nigerian service providers, expressed satisfaction with the development roles of the NCDMB.

The oil well control expert explained that Kenyon had developed a homegrown solution to oil theft and vandalism and was awaiting widespread deployment across oilfields in the Niger Delta.

Ubong further explained that NCDMB’s policy guidelines to International Oil Companies to utilise services by Nigerian companies set a benchmark for other agencies to learn from.

Ubong said that the NCDMB establishment law helped to grow the technical capacity of indigenous companies and the oil and gas business.

He said it also raised the Nigerian Content level from less than five per cent in the past 13 years to current level of 54 per cent.

He said that the policies of the NCDMB had checked the total dominance of the Nigerian oil and gas sector by international companies.

“All the jobs that the indigenous people can handle since the NCDMB Act 2010 have been given to Nigerians, we now have indigenous companies doing the jobs that were given to foreigners with associated capital flight.

“More trainings, more hands on experience on the job, you can see now that Nigeria has competent hands, but what we need is just development.

“That is just the gap that the Local Content Board has come to bridge, to create more opportunity, more development,” he said.

On the massive divestment of International operators from Onshore Assets, he said that Nigeria had the manpower and human resources to run the facilities.

“We have people that have been trained in that area by  international companies. We have a lot of good hands, many of our guys have even gone outside the country to work in search of greener pastures.

(NAN)