The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, a federal government body, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Senegal's National Local Content Monitoring Agency to strengthen local content in Senegal's oil and gas industry.
The signing, which took place on Tuesday at the 7th Sub-Saharan Africa International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference in Lagos, followed Senegal's preparations for its first oil and gas production before the end of the year.
This report is courtesy of the Punch NG, a Nigerian news agency.
Senegal's envoy, Deputy Permanent Secretary, COS Petrogaz, Republic of Senegal, Mamadou Fall Kane, said that Senegal had much to learn from Nigeria, which had achieved 54% local content of a 70% target by 2027.
“I conceived this partnership framework with the NCDMB for the past year, and it is very fulfilling that this event is holding today. With the signing of this collaboration, Senegal has a lot to learn from Nigeria on how to deepen its local content target. This would go a long way to benefit all Senegalese as the country moves towards developing our natural resources”, he stated.
Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, emphasized that the cooperation was not just to enhance local content in Senegal, but also a business-to-business partnership and capacity building in Senegal.
Mele Kyari, Group Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, urged collaboration among African countries to make additional hydrocarbon discoveries on the continent in his Keynote presentation.
“In the next twenty years, energy demand in Africa is expected to increase in the order of 30-35% to support the projected increase in population and industrialization. This presents an enormous opportunity for us to form partnerships across the continent and build a sustainable future,” Mele Kyari said.
“The need for partnership is reinforced as more African countries continue to make hydrocarbon discoveries. We should collaborate and share knowledge and help each other in critical areas including technology, exploration and production, research and development, technical expertise, and human capacity development to spread the wealth within the continent,” he added.