FG deploys Julius Berger on Oloibiri Center project
Sopuruchi Onwuka
Federal government on Wednesday approved the award of the major contract for the building of the much awaited Olibiri Museum and Research Centre, in Bayelsa State.
The museum is conceived to preserve the heritage and developments in the Nigerian petroleum industry while the Research Centre form the hub for evolution of home grown solutions to technical and technological challenges as obtains in other oil producing nations.
At the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting on Wednesday chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari, government awarded the contract for the first phase of the project, covering Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of the Oloibiri Museum & Research Centre (OMRC).
Following the contract award, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc is committed to deliver the full project scope within 30 months, and the structure is to be located in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa State.
Some 40 percent of the resources required for driving the project to completion would be provided by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF); 30 percent is expected from the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB); 20 percent will e contributed by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC); and the rest would come from the host Bayelsa State Government (BYSG).
Full project cost and available financial outlay are yet to be worked out by the partners.
The approval of the development of the Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre comes some 66 years after the discovery of crude oil in commercial quantities in the location by Shell D’Arcy, and after several decades in which the OMRC project existed as a concept for industry history preservation and centre for solutions incubation.
Realization of the project, according industry players, is expected to close a major gap in the nation’s quest for home grown technology inputs required to service exploration and production activities in the sector.
The project team for the symbolic project was first launched in August 2020 by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, with the inauguration of key project committees and setting of delivery timelines.
The project is approved as part of President Buhari’s signature programs that would leave behind enduring legacies and impact the oil and gas community, the people of the Niger Delta, and the entire nation.
The historical essence of the project is to convert the location where first oil was discovered into a monumental edifice that would preserve the heritage and developments in the oil and gas sector. The socio economic impact of the project includes employment generation, tourism, research & technology development and integration of oil and gas host communities into mainstream developmental narrative of the country.
With the contract approval, the groundbreaking ceremony is expected to be held before April 2023.
Commenting on the approval, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Sylva, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for his special love for the Niger Delta region, recalling that he granted his first approval for the project amid the COVID-19 pandemic and its socio-economic impact.
He added that the project consists of the construction of a Museum where historic developments, data, equipment, and tools used in the Nigerian oil and gas industry will be stored for posterity and the construction of a functional Research Center where prototypes can be tested and validated in fulfillment of the requirement for approval of new technologies.
To ensure sustainability, the project adopted a development model that will leverage the benefits of public-private partnership, inter-agency collaboration, and inter-governmental alignment, to optimize resource utilization and ensure that the Oloibiri museum meets international standards, Sylva explained.
To ensure timely execution, the project created two committees and five project teams to provide necessary support and supervision essential to deliver the OMRC project.
The committees include the Steering Committee, which would be responsible for providing leadership; the Coordinating Committee, responsible for providing oversight on activities of all the project teams.
The project teams include Construction; Funds mobilization and management; Community Relations; Health, Safety & Environment; and Secretariat, which is situated in NCDMB Head Office in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
