Four organisations handling the Train -7 Gas project have refused to honour invitation by the Senate Committee on Local Content due to issues relating to alleged breach of Local Content Act on implementation of the project.
The organisations are the operators and promoters of the Train 7 Gas project which includes the Nigerian Liquified Natural Gas, NLNG; Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, Saipem and Daewoo.
Chairman of the committee, Senator Teslim Folarin who decried non appearance of the chief executives or representatives of the organisations, said there were petitions against the running and the promoters of Train -7 Gas project.
Investigate hearing
According to him, there are lots of pressures to escalate the matter to an investigative hearing. Senator Folarin, however, said the committee thought it would be nice to hear from the four organisations involved, hence their invitation.
“We invited the four of them today, but as you can see, non of them honoured our invitation,” he said.
Vice Chairman of the committee, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, while speaking further on the position of the committee said the matter boarded on implementation of Nigeria’s local content policy.
Senator Abdullahi said Train 7 Gas project, which centred on increasing the nation’s output on liquified natural gas was an issue that was critical, given the increasing price of cooking gas in the country.
He said given the huge deposit of gas, the National Assembly was interested in how the companies could make life meaningful to Nigerians in their participation on the Train 7 project and on increasing the local capacity.
He said the committee resolved that given non appearance of the four organisations on the next invitation slated for December 2, the committee would escalate the matter to a full public investigation.
Compliance to set local content rules
Senator Abdullahi who is the Deputy Senate Chief Whip, said the parliament would not abdicate its responsibility of ensuring compliance to set local content rules and regulations, noting that it was committed to ensuring success of the Train 7 Gas project.
According to him, it was the duty of the parliament to ensure that Nigerians were not short changed and taken for granted, while expressing hope that the concerned organisations would honour the next invitation slated for December 2, 2021.
He, however said the Train 7 Gas project was an attempt by the NLNG to increase Nigeria’s output from the current level to tap from the abundant natural gas resources in the country.
Senator Abdullahi, who did not disclose further details, on the petitions against the companies given its sensitive nature, said the committee would want to hear from the organisations.
Lateefah Ibrahim
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