‘NNPC, NEPZA rivalry delays Delta gas park project’

The rivalry between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority (NEPZA) is responsible for the delay in the Ogidigben Gas Industrial Park in Delta State.

The project, which is said to hold the economic potential for the country as the world shifts to gas exploration, had been abandoned since the ground breaking ceremony was performed by former President Goodluck Jonathan in March 2015, for no reason other than the alleged ineptitude from the agencies.

In a letter to President Muhammadu Buhari by the Oil Spill Victims Vanguard (OSPIVV), signed by its Executive Director, Harrison Jalla, the group said NNPC and NEPZA have been at each other’s throat over who would provide the basic infrastructure for the project to take off.

“Mr. President as we speak, two agencies of the Federal Government, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Nigeria Export Processing Zone Authority are fighting over who should provide the basic infrastructure for the project to take off.

NNPC having done the initial clearing of the site and constructed a Helipad before NEPZA came in to interfere with the progress the NNPC has made, as we speak the cleared site has been overgrown with weeds and trees enveloping the helipad that was constructed by the NNPC.

NEPZA was alleged to have contracted the handling of the site to a certain company called Alpha Group which has done nothing so far to prepare the site for investors to move in,” Jalla said.

It was learnt that foreign investors such as RANCON, GASPRON (Russia), NAGARJUNA (India), Norwegians and Chinese conglomerates are waiting in the wings to invest billions of dollars in the project.

According to the group, the gas project has potential to create close to three million jobs for youths in the Niger Delta.

They urged the president to beam its searchlight on the development of the Niger Delta and that the gas project is key to justifying that warning that if by March 2018 the Ogidigben gas park project is not kick-started, stakeholders would invoke their constitutional right to protest.