A destroyed refinery By Favour Ifeoluwa & Akinola Ajibade The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited( NNPCL) says it has destroyed 134 illegal refineries in the last few weeks. Also, the company said 63 illegal pipeline connections were uncovered during the the weeks . The corporation, In a visual report, stated that at about 2 am on Sunday, a joint team of security agents discovered a large wooden boat illicitly loading stolen crude oil from Barge AGS01 within the OML 18 operating area, noted intelligence report a large wooden wooden boat was caught receiving crude oil from the barge. According to the state-owned oil firm, while the barge was towed away with a tugboat in custody, five speedboats used in towing the large wooden boat to the illegal loading site were also detained and the particulars of the tugboats and barge used for the operation were reportedly seized for further investigation. It further said that two large boats, which involve
By Favour & Akinola Ajibade
Barring any unforeseen circumstances, the proposed Centre for Skills Development and Training (CSDT) will be ready for commission by December end.
Initiated by the Petroleum Technology Development Fund( PTDF) to promote acquisition of skills relevant to the operation of oil and gas industry, the construction of the project which started in 2011, was heavily boosted by the Nigerian Content and Development Monitoring Board(NCDMB).
Located at Omagwa in Ikpere Local Government Area of Rivers State, the project, according to the State's MINISTER for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri is 85 per cent completion.
Speaking during a visit to the project' site this Wednesday, the minister ( Lokpobiri) said the project will be completed in the next six weeks, a statement, which implies that the project will be ready by December this year.
He further said that the centre has received a massive boost with the entry of NCDMB as co-financier after due negotiations with the PTDF.
" At 85 per cent completion, the scope and quality of work done were impressive. Though the construction of the project was stopped briefly due to wrangling over variations between PTDF the Contractors, the project ( center) is almost completed" he said.
Accompanied on the tour by the Executive Secretary, NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote, and the Executive Secretary of PTDF, Alhaji Aminu Ahmed Galadima, the Minister said that the project was of great significance and does not have to remain uncompleted any longer.
“We have to move forward,” he stated, adding that “further intervention by the Board is necessary to reap the full benefits of the investments already made, he added.
Still on the project, Lokpobiri said that it will be completed soon.
On the involvement of NCDMB on the project, its Executive Secretary, Engr. Wabote said it was the determination of the Board to check the proliferation of vocational centres, which were as many as 250 in the three states of Rivers, Bayelsa and Akwa Ibom. Most of them, he noted, were non-functional even though they had been completed and equipped.
Equipment in all had been stolen or vandalised, so it became necessary to establish standardized and federal government-backed vocational centres at strategic locations.
Recall that PTDF provided automobile works, basic electrical works, basic requirements in Health Safety and Environment (HSE), catering, electronics repairs, masonry, seismic survey technology, welding, and fabrication.
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