Sylva breaks ground for Oloibiri Museum, Hotel projects
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva is to perform the groundbreaking of the Oloibiri Museum and Research Center (OMRC), in Ogbia Local Government of Bayelsa State.
The Minister would also perform the groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of the first major hotel in the state conceived by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to facilitate accommodation for delegates attending conferences hosted by the agency which champions promotion of local goods and services in business operations.
The NCDMB Conference Hotel Project (CHP) is designed to be a three-star hotel to be located adjacent to the 17-storey Nigerian Content Tower in Swali, Yenegoa, Bayelsa State.
Chief Sylva is billed to perform the groundbreaking ceremo
ny on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari who is incidentally the country’s Minister of Petroleum Resources.
According to the NCDMB which is in the frontline of driving the two major projects in host Bayelsa State, Oloibiri Museum and Research Center is being constructed at the location where commercial quantities of oil were first discovered in 1957 by Royal Dutch Shell.
The construction of the monumental structure comes 66 years after the historic petroleum discovery, which became a turning point for the Nigerian economy.
The Museum and Research Center are being developed in collaboration by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), NCDMB, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), and the Bayelsa State Government (BYSG).
The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had on February 8 awarded the contract for the Phase-1 Engineering, Procurement and Construction of the OMRC to Julius Berger.
Speaking ahead of the groundbreaking event, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, who serves as the chairman of the project’s steering committee, explained that the Museum and Research Center would correct a historical oversight that lasted for several decades during which the people of Bayelsa State demanded a symbol for the birthplace of oil and gas production in Nigeria.
He added that the project would place Nigeria among other oil-producing nations that established oil and gas museums to recognise and preserve the heritage and origin of their oil and gas production.
He listed the benefits of the facility to include the provision of a suitable location where historic developments, data, equipment, and tools used in the Nigerian oil and gas industry will be stored for posterity and provision of a Research Center where research prototypes from the industry can be tested against the requirements of the industry.
The museum will equally encourage tourism, and integration of oil and gas host communities into the development of the sector.
On theConference Hotel Project, the NCDMB boss explained that it is designed toprovide suitable accommodation for stakeholders and other personalities that visit Yenagoa for business or to participate in the several oil and gas events organised periodically at the Board’s 1000-seater ultra-modern Conference Centre.
He added that the hotel will equally provide accommodation for researchers and other persons that would visit the Oloibiri Museum as well as boost the attraction of Yenagoa as a tourist destination.
The event is expected to be attended by the chief executive of the sponsoring entities, bigwigs from the oil and gas industry and stakeholders of the Niger Delta region.
