Corporation considers collaboration with Bayelsa on power

The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Thursday said the corporation would collaborate with the Bayelsa government to build a power plant in the state.

Dr Maikanti Baru said this while receiving the Gov Seriake Dickson, at the NNPC Towers in Abuja.

According to Baru, the power plant will be built at the state’s proposed industrial park while the collaboration will afford the state and the NNPC the opportunity to share technical knowledge that will attract investors to the Niger Delta region.

He said, ”We have a lot of areas of collaboration. The NNPC will support Bayelsa State Government every inch of the way to deliver on the power plant in the proposed industrial park, ensure security of oil and gas infrastructure and siting of other inclusive projects that would improve the lives of the people in the communities.”

Baru added that Bayelsa was earmarked for the Federal Government’s Greenfield Modular Refinery project, feasibility studies had been concluded but the project was stalled due to the withdrawal of foreign partners.

He said the delay on the Final Investment Decision (FID) of Brass Liquefied Natural Gas (BLNG), was because a market window for the product was being arranged.

”We have spent a lot of money on the Brass LNG project and we had planned the FID for 2012 but the shareholders were unable to secure the market due to new plants in East Africa and other developments in the industry.

”What the shareholders in Brass LNG are doing now is to redesign the plant and secure a market because without the market the project cannot go on,” he said.

Baru also expressed interest in the state’s Brass Fertilizer Company, assuring that NNPC was prepared to invest in the project as a shareholder.

He pledged that the corporation would rally its Joint Venture partners to support the State Trust Fund in order to mitigate the incidences of pipeline vandalism which impact negatively on the efficiency of the operators as well as the environment.

Gov. Seriake Dickson had earlier said the visit was to appreciate Baru’s laudable efforts and to solicit the Corporation’s support for the state’s security, development and the Oil and Gas industry.

Dickson said his state would seek an Oil Prospecting License, OPL, whenever the industry undertakes another bid round.

He noted that his state needed such investment, over time, to augment the monthly allocation from the Federal Government.