Wednesday, June 27, 2012

DPR, NCDMB seek compliance on expatriate quota, others

THE Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) have forged a partnership to ensure that compliance with Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGIC) Act 2010 by operators and oil service companies is met on expatriate quota management.
The collaboration, which is expected to be formally endorsed by the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, will see the two agencies hope to interface seamlessly, ensure industry compliance with section 33 of the NOGIC Act, minimise incidents of abuse and ensure optimal knowledge transfer to Nigerians from enforcement.
The committee is also to address the increasing incidence of staff disengagement by operators and design partnership model for critical information sharing between DPR and NCDMB to facilitate effective regulation of the industry.
It was also decided that the Act would be a key condition for participating in bid rounds and securing licenses, permits and approvals in the industry.
Managements of the two agencies, who agreed to ensure this at a meeting in Lagos recently, also set up a joint committee to design an interface model with regard to common mandates related to Nigerian Content development in the oil and gas industry.
The committee is expected to develop procedure for operationalising sections 3 and 7 of the NOGIC Act, which provides that compliance with Nigerian Content provisions, promotion of Nigerian Content development and submission of Nigerian Content Plan will constitute conditions for the award of licenses, permits and any other project in the oil and gas industry.
The Director of DPR, Osten Olurunsola commended NCDMB for the numerous achievements it had recorded within two years of its establishment, adding that Nigerian Content has been the shining light in the industry within the period.
He called for close collaboration between the two agencies, in a way that will be evident for stakeholders to see.
According to him, “when we are seen working together, people will find it difficult to play one agency against the other and when we have issues, we will examine them.”
The Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Ernest Nwapa maintained that the oil and gas industry can only make sustainable progress if all agencies of government connected with the sector have a common understanding.
“Once there are conflicting signals from NCDMB, DPR and NAPIMS, there will be problems. We want people from our offices to be acting on the basis of a common understanding of the laws and government policies.
In a bid to build a common understanding for its mandate, Nwapa said the Board had engaged several ministries, departments and agencies connected with the oil and gas industry and Nigerian Content implementation and had recorded immense successes.
Some of these MDAs include Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Information and Technology, Ministry of Trade and Investment, Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank of Industry, NIMASA, NDDC and NIPC.
He advised agencies of government against having the erroneous impression that collaborating with each other will lead to encroachment into their mandates, adding that any success recorded through such efforts will always be jointly shared.

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