Wabote: Championing indigenous participation in all strands of oil, gas sector
Though he was appointed as the substantive Executive Secretary of Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring board almost half a decade ago, his landmarks, and heroic achievements in the upstream, downstream and midstream sectors have left so many encouraged, rendered many humbled and sent a colossal message to the rest of the world that there exist few Nigerians who still have the best interest of Nigerians at heart, considering Nigeria ab initio, and the steering of critical sector of the country’s economy.
A little searchlight on Engineer Simbi Kesiye Wabote showed he is a son of the soil, born specifically in Bayelsa state around 1966. He is a knight of St. Christopher of the Anglican Communion and very reputable for his public speaker prowess.
He is a bonafide fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), as well as the Institute of Petroleum Studies (IPS). He was for a while, Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), with a wide role in the company’s C&P Glob Content Manager breath. He had a quantum of responsibilities of designing for local strategies for Royal Dutch Shell (RDS).
Until his appointment as the substantive Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engineer Simbi Wabote had amassed several years of unrivaled experience in oil and gas with uncontestable track records in Engineering, supply chain, stakeholders management and local content development.
As a true Nigerian who is bent on preserving Nigerian interest and local minerals, he has steadily used his office to champion the participations of Nigerians in the key layers in all the tripod-streams of the oil and gas sector.
He has made sterling performances in levelling up the playing field in the oil and gas sector to incorporate local players in local investments by enabling local capacity in the industry.
The Board, under his stewardship, is leading a revolutionary transformation through domestic engagement and mandatory involvement of Nigerians and their companies alike in both critical and non critical projects in the oil and gas sector, the spoils that had been enjoyed by foreigners
His leadership has tilted the playing field which has successfully expedite the participation of Nigerians in oil and gas sector that has so rendered hundreds of thousands of Nigeria employed and subsequently become employers of labour in the sector.
His first masterstroke came with the construction of Total’s Egina floating production storage and offloading (FPS O) vessel, weighing 220,000 tonnes and measuring 330m long by 60m wide.
This gargantuan vessel is equipped to produce up to 200,000 barrels per day and hold up to 2.3 million barrels of oil. This is one of the Six of the modules of the Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) Vessel manufactured and integrated on Nigeria soil, the very first of its kind.
The completion of this state-of-the-art construction led to the creation of over 3,000 vacancies that generously and massively provided thousands of jobs for Nigerians.
Soon to follow was the establishment of a 500-meter integration quay-side which allows construction, integration, and maintenance for FPSOs future construction easier and cheaper.
His strategies at enforcing compliance of local content laws and regulations have been hinged on continuous engagement of all stakeholders by torchlighting on all the requirements of the Act.
Since his assumption of office, he has redirected the landscape of Nigerian oil and gas by innovatively creating strategies, ideas and programmes which have successfully ushered in an instantaneous impact on Nigerian economy mainstay.
NCDMB has had its activities 100 per cent automated especially in areas of local content processes that spring across the application and approval of expatriate quota approvals, Nigerian Content Plan, Nigerian Content Equipment Certification and Nigerian Content Compliance Certificate, under this General.
For those who have never visited NCDMB official website, sitting by the right of the dashboard, is a downloadable 10-Year Strategic Road Map in Portable Documents Format (PDF) that clearly illustrates, both in drawings and words, the activities channelled towards increasing Nigerian Content performance from 28 percent to 70 percent by 2027. At the moment, it has moved to 42 per cent, and was initiated and facilitated by Engineer Simbi Kesiye Wabote. Estimatedly, this initiative will bring about the creation of 300,000 jobs and retain US$14bn in-country out of the US$20billion annual industry spends.
For accountability and enhancement of transparency, by bridging all the loopholes that may encourage mismanagement of oil funds, Engineer Simbi Wabote, introduced forensic audit of Nigerian Content Development Fund remittance by oil and gas companies.
As expected, this initiative led to a huge recovery of arrears of unpaid NCDF levies by some companies and has since, brought about a high level of transparency and compliance.
He has successfully nurtured cross-sectorial linkages with other sectors of the economy like Power, ICT, Education and Construction. Through this, substantial patronage of locally manufactured cables, paints and ICT equipment by the oil and gas industry, and participation in related operations has skyrocketed.
His strong advocacy of local content expansion has encouraged National Assembly to extend the Local Content Act to cover Power Sector, ICT and Construction Sectors and also engendered the Federal Executive Council’s entrenchment of the Local Content practice in other key sectors through the issuance of Executive Orders 03 and 05. Access to Affordable Credit, the creation of US$200m intervention fund to provide affordable credit for Nigerians in oil and gas industry and community contractors with single digit interest rate and 1-year moratorium.
Wabote championed NCDMB’s strategic equity investment in Waltermith’s 5,000 barrels per day modular refinery in Imo State and Azikel 12,000 bpd hydro-skimming modular refinery in Bayelsa State.
This has brought about dynamics by moving conversations around modular refining from mere words to actions, which has resulted in over 500 new employments; more value-added activities to hydrocarbon resources, reduction in crude theft and pipe line vandalism.
He started, and oversaw the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair (NOGOF), a 3rd edition, brought together together professionals from the upstream, downstream and midstream sectors of the oil and gas industry.
He created, through NOGOF 2021, the best opportunity where product and services were showcased with participation of over 1,200 key stakeholders in the oil and gas industry all over the world despite COVID-19 that almost brought the world economy to its knees.
NCDMB under his leadership has committed a total of US$332million within its commercial ventures partnership programme in view of attracting project developments in-country valued at US$3.7billion.
