22 July 2015, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Denzil Kentebe, has said that achieving success in the implementation of Nigerian Content law is of great benefit to every stakeholder in the oil and gas industry including the international oil companies.
Kentebe who spoke in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State during a meeting with General Managers of Nigerian Content Divisions in the international oil companies noted that NCDMB deliberately decided against implementing the law in a confrontational manner.
He explained that the Act was not being implemented in an oppositional manner whereby the board and the operators viewed themselves as adversaries.
Rather than adopt such a posture, he noted, the board decided from inception in 2010 to collaborate with the IOCs and other operating and service industry stakeholders, adding that this model had proven very effective in stimulating compliance with provisions of the Act.
The local content boss maintained that the developmental role of the board was very critical and it involved close collaboration with stakeholders to develop in-country capacities and capabilities which make it possible to execute most industry projects hitherto taken abroad before the advent of the Act.
Kentebe who acknowledged the partnering role of operating companies with the board over the years and their support in the development of local capacity through various initiatives, charged the companies to keep working hard especially with the operational challenges facing the industry at the moment.
He assured that the board would work closely with Nigerian Content GMs to find solutions to problems their companies might have relating to Nigerian Content compliance in their projects.
Speaking earlier, General Manager, Nigerian Content, Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NAOC), Mrs. Callista Azogu, underscored the IOCs avowed commitment to Nigerian content development, which according to her began before the enactment of the Act in April 2010.
Azogu who is the chairperson of the group admitted that there were often challenges with operators complying with some expectations of the Nigerian Content Act, noting however, that such difficulties were always resolved with the board to the benefit of all stakeholders.
Also contributing, the General Manager, Nigerian Content Development, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Raymond Wilcox stated that their group and the board pursued the same objectives.
Wilcox said these include to increase the participation of Nigerians and utilization of Nigerian assets and facilities in the operations of the oil and gas industry, retain a greater part of the industry spend in-country and transform the Nigerian economy through the oil and gas industry.
He added that Nigerian content had taken root in the operating companies and members of their group were the vanguards of the philosophy in their organisations.