Mkpoikana Udoma
Port Harcourt — The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, will support Notore Chemical Industries Plc, to develop its industrial city in order to provide integrated services to oil and gas firms, and also improve the nation’s agricultural and infrastructural sectors.
Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Wabote announced this during a tour of Notore’s facilities in Onne, Rivers State, which was formerly known as National Fertilizer Company of Nigeria, NAFCON,
Wabote explained that the agro-allied, petrochemicals and power company had bigger potentials for industrialization, notably because it has gas resources, generates its own electricity and had recently been granted free trade zone status by the Federal Government.
He added that the ample landmass and other natural assets also positioned the complex perfectly for hosting allied industries and serving as a logistics base for key oil and gas operations such as NLNG Train-7 and SNEPCo’s Bonga-SW Aparo’s projects.
“This facility is just 15 kilometres to NLNG in Bonny, so there is potential to participate in the NLNG Train-7 project. There is vast land here, so you can also have accommodation for projects. This location could become a staging ground for most of the NLNG construction that would happen.
“Notore’s facility could also be considered for the execution of SNEPCo’s Bonga-SW Aparo’s deepwater project. That project would also happen and we are looking for the draft and you have it here. There are potentials for ancillary factories that support the oil and gas sector.”
Wabote commended the management for revitalizing the assets and expressed delight that key operations of the fertilizer plant were being run by Nigerians.
“All the people manning the operations are Nigerians. The feeling is unbelievable and this is what we talk about in NCDMB in terms of industrialization and the synergy we must build across sectors. This is one of those companies that are changing the face of Nigeria in terms of agriculture. What the company does and the impact on our economy is unbelievable.”
Earlier, the Group Chairman of Notore Chemical Plc, Mr. Onajite Okoloko, said Notore’s assets cut across oil and gas, agricultural and infrastructural sectors, adding that the firm was working to build a second plant fertilizer plant, which would produce high yield fertilizers to farmers for more agricultural production.
Okoloko while commending Wabote for the visit, explained that the company was determined to build a petrochemical city and commercialize some of its assets, which includes the 560 hectares of land and two kilometres of waterfront.
“The larger picture from one of our subsidiaries, Notore industrial city is to create an industrial chemical estate. Our free trade zone is rated number one by PWC in the sense that it has a deep river port, 10.5 meters of the tradable draft, with direct access to the ocean. We also have 560 hectares of land and is the only free trade zone in the country that has gas and power.
”In our estate, you can have fertilizer plants and petrochemicals because we have the gas infrastructure so you can use that as raw material. At the same time, we have a logistics base that can support the oil and gas industry. So we have the logistics on one hand and the commercialization of gas which is being flared in the country, so this becomes a gas hub.
“We will work with various stakeholders to optimize the location to create a significant amount of industrialization which is key to the economic growth of the country, and at the same time employ a huge amount of local skills to support the facility we have here.”
