The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote, has thrown his weight behind the Benin Industrial and Enterprise Park (BIEP).
He said the agency was concluding arrangements on investments from oil and gas firms to be hosted at the Park.
He made this known when Governor Godwin Obaseki led a delegation to the board’s office in Abuja.
Wabote said NCDMB would support the initiative aimed at improving the economy and wooing more investors to the oil and gas sector.
The Benin Industrial and Enterprise Park will be serviced by a dedicated gas pipeline with direct interconnection to natural gas trunk line and a direct gas sales agreement with reliable gas suppliers.
The park is sponsored by the Obaseki-led administration and Amaya Capital, a principal energy investment firm, with a commitment to ensure that the park kicks off next year as a private-sector led industrial park.
The BIEP provides efficient and competitive infrastructure to international and local firms, and will be developed in phases on a 900-hectare site located along the Benin-Sapele Road. It has a designated area for oil and gas service firms.
Wabote said the agency has budgeted for the Park, particularly for land acquisition.
He said the board would also be willing to partner the Edo government to catalyse other sectors provided there would be a return on such investments.
“There is a lot we can do in the gas corridor in Edo. We have to diversify from crude oil in order to change the thinking in the Niger Delta,” Wabote said.
Obaseki explained that the BIEP would take advantage of “significant gas reserves within the state, being on the route of the core Escravos to Lagos gas trunk line with a capacity of approximately two billion cubic feet of gas per day”.