Budget deficit: NCDMB declares readiness to lead oil production boost
Sopuruchi Onwuka
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is sharpening existing plans and strategies to galvanize pan-industry efforts in realizing ambitious petroleum production targets.
Executive Secretary, Engr Felix Ogbe, stated that the agency has activated collaborative measures with players to boost oil production from current 1.5 million barrels per day (mbd) for 2.5 mbd in the short term.
The Oracle Today reports that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has mandated the petroleum industry to rapidly boost oil output by significant 1.0 mbd to enable his administration of the federal government close gaps in fiscal projections for the year.
Whereas the 2025 budget is based on oil production of 2.06 mbd at market value of $75 per barrel, the industry recoded some 1.5 mbd of oil plus 0.3mbd of gas condensate. Total liquid production amounted to 1.8 mbd in January, leaving a shortfall of 0.26 mbd from budget targets.
To close the gaps, analysts agree that the industry should exceed the projected 2.06 mbd to cover lost grounds.
Engr Ogbe who delivered a keynote address at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja said NCDMB and players in the upstream petroleum industry are taking full advantage of the presidential executive orders that placed processes on fast track.
He stated that the related executive orders on ease of doing business have helped to close investment decisions on projects that will translate to enhanced oil production.
The NCDMB, according to him, has also updated all its local content compliance requirements and also sharpened regulatory instruments to enable players take full advantage of government’s incentives for oilfield operations.
In defining local content practice as potent strategy for maximizing potentials for economic growth, Engr Ogbe stated that NCDMB is building sustainable industrial ecosystem to domicile full petroleum industry activities in the local economy.
He noted that the agency is currently assisting players with significant funding facilities through its Nigerian Content Intervention Fund (NCIF) to shield projects from high cost of debt funding.
He also pointed at the agency’s four industrial parks that offers industry facility and equipment manufacturers congenial operating havens.
Engr Ogbe called on companies willing to establish plants in the country to approach the NCDMB for space at the full facility industrial parks.
On on innovation, he pointed at robust research and development programs already driven by the agency to innovate 3D printing for reverse engineering and production of replica parts maintenance of obsolete facilities in the industry.
The research endeavors, he said, becomes crucial in rehabilitation and re-streaming of brownfield oilfields and facilities being divested to indigenous communities.
He observed that reverse engineering and 3D printing technology have become crucial to operating brownfield assets because some of the original manufacturers of equipment used in the divested assets do not exist anymore, making replacement parts difficult to get.
Engr Ogbe pointed out that all programs in the NCDMB’s 10 year strategic roadmap envisaged the current realities in the industry and also remain very relevant in galvanizing and facilitating pan-industry collaboration in responding to demand calls from the oil market.
