NCDMB Director Applauds Sylva Over National Honour

The Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) was bestowed upon Chief Timipre Sylva, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, by Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).

Following President Muhammadu Buhari's presentation of the honour to the minister on Tuesday, Wabote expressed his praise in a statement.

Sylva, who was appointed in 2019, was acknowledged to be wholly deserving of the national honour for her tireless efforts in transforming Nigeria's oil and gas industry.

He claims that the minister has made a number of achievements that have boosted the country's economy.

He cited a number of accomplishments, such as collaborating with the National Assembly to approve the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

The Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021, according to Wabote, was signed into law by President Muhammadu Buhari on August 16, 2021.

He added that it also involved the start-up and 2020 launches of the Decade of Gas Initiative and the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP), both of which were intended to increase domestic LPG consumption and deepen the use of alternative fuels like compressed natural gas (CNG) for transportation.

He continued by saying that the NGEP supported the adoption of less expensive, cleaner fuels and made sure that the effects of PMS's subsidy reduction were kept to a minimum.

“Other achievements of the minister included improving the harmonised data reporting to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

“Provision of comprehensive technical support for Nigeria’s representation at OPEC and ensuring that the Federal Government took the Final Investment Decision (FID) that led to the development of the 7 billion dollars NLNG Train 7 project.

“It Championed Africa’s position for a multi-dimensional approach to energy transition using gas as a transition fuel,” Wabote said.

According to him, Sylva also fought for the elimination of gasoline subsidies so that the money raised could be used for both national development and the restoration of Nigeria's three refineries, located in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna.

Wabote also noted the minister's efforts to find new investors and create the Nigerian Gas Transportation Network Code (NGTNC) programme in order to revive the Brass LNG project, which was abandoned more than 17 years ago.

The Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialization Programme (NGFCP), he continued, was created by the minister to aid Nigeria's efforts to achieve zero routine flaring by collecting gas from flares and auctioning it off to outside parties for commercialization.

He also gave the minister credit for actively collaborating with NCDMB to enable the development of oil and gas industrial parks and modular refineries in the Niger Delta.

According to the executive secretary, Sylva collaborated with NCDMB to develop LPG distribution centres as part of the Nigeria Gas Expansion programme in 10 Northern states of the nation.