Mkpoikana Udoma 01 March 2017, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – The Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority, OGFZA, is set to break new grounds with the licensing of a new oil and gas free zone in Delta State.
The Managing Director of OGFZA, Mr. Umana Okon Umana, who led his management team on a facility tour of the site of the proposed oil and gas free zone in Okitigbo community, Warri North Local Government Area of Delta State, announced that he was impressed with the level of development of the proposed facility and the readiness of its promoters, Awaritse Nigeria Limited, ANL, to acquire a free zone status for it.
But, he informed that the proposed facility would have to comply with a set of requirements from OGFZA, after which a recommendation would be forwarded to President Muhammadu Buhari to grant the facility a licence.
He said he was pleased that the project was a 100 per cent Nigerian initiative, and expressed the hope that the seaport in Koko, which is near the project site, would be integrated into it in the future.
In a presentation to the OGFZA team, secretary and legal adviser to the board of ANL, Barr. Desmond Dudu, said the proposed free zone would be into both upstream and downstream activities in the oil and gas sector, adding that it sits on a land area of 87,044 hectares with a plan to increase it by another 80,000 hectares.
Dudu disclosed that the project would attract more than $100 million in foreign direct investments in the first instance, adding that when completed, the free zone would generate 2,170 direct and indirect jobs.