07 April 2014, Abuja – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has completed the key pre-construction data gathering for the $20 billion Ogidigben gas industrial park being constructed in Delta State.
With the completion and site clearing, among others, investors who intend to invest in the project, can come in access the data and move to site.
NNPC’s Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Dr. David Ige, who made this known, said construction giants, Julius Berger, has moved in and has started work on Phase 1 of the project.
Ige said: “We have completed key pre-construction data gathering on site. Fugro activities in Ogidigben are ongoing and study reports will be available shortly. NNPC has conducted the following surveys and investigations at site; soil investigation, hydrology study, hydrogeology study, sand search, bathymetry survey and environmental impact assessment (EIA), onshore and offshore.
“Investors can access at no cost, significant technical data in respect of the site in order to fast track technical evaluation and design of their projects.”
He said NNPC and its partner, the state government, secured 2800 hectares of land for the park at a desirable location by the ocean and the Escravos River, for inland access adding that the Certificate of Occupancy (CofO) has been issued. The dedicated gas based industrial park, also has free trade zone (FTZ) and port status, he said, adding that the project’s proximity to existing Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) gas infrastructure enables relatively easy gas access with less pipeline infrastructure development cost.
He said the industrial park has a dedicated power plant of about 350 megawatts capacity, central processing facility, petrochemical, fertiliser and methanol plants, centralised utilities provision, world class integrated fibre optic network (broadband and telecoms)
The industrial park, he noted, is served by an existing breakwater at Escravos and said the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) may need to upgrade it.
Ige said the challenge the corporation faces is the swampy terrain of the site, typical of Niger Delta and that implies high initial construction costs, hence the need for Federal Government’s support.
He described the project as the gas revolution industrial park, which will be the largest gas industrial park in sub-Saharan Africa adding that the industrial park is patterned after the Xenel Petrochemical Plant in Saudi Arabia and the Nagarjuna Fertiliser Plant in India. The project is estimated to cost between $15 billion and $20 billion with additional investments in infrastructure and utilities to be provided by a special purpose vehicle.
On completion the industrial park will consolidate Nigeria’s position and market share in high value export markets, maintain 10 per cent market share in global LNG trade and dominate regional gas pipelines supplies.
– The Nation
