With the oil and gas industry undoubtedly the mainstay of Nigeria’s economy, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board has rolled out plans to nurture 100 indigenous oil and gas service providers, in a competitive and sustainable way through targeted interventions, into large scale players that will create high value and better develop the sector.
The Project 100 which is an initiative of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources is scheduled to raise local oil and gas firms through non- financial interventions ways such as strategic and structured business support and also further provide additional linkages for financial interventions in terms of asset finance and working capital. According to NCDMB, in a bid to grow indigenous oil and gas service providers into large scale players Project 100 will focus on key areas such as local content development, local industry mobilization, economic transformation, industry innovation, job creation, wealth generation and social responsibility. The Board noted that beneficiaries must demonstrate their primary business focus in providing oil and gas services especially those in high impact sectors which are important in bridging the current local content gap.
“Beneficiaries shall demonstrate evidence of active business operations over a period of at least three years and ability to remain in impactful operations into the foreseeable future,” according to NCDMB.
“The beneficiaries must demonstrate baseline commitment to building business processes and systems with safety compliance being a proxy for international safety standards.”
NCDMB also acknowledged that beneficiaries must be have a good record of compliance with relevant regulatory requirements in their operating environment and also not contravened Nigeria content stipulations.
NCDMB noted that the project 100 initiative will be executed over a phased approach starting from definition of target beneficiary segment to setup of application platform, development of selection strategy, development of project 100 intervention strategies, development of partnership collaboration model and development of delivery model.

According to the Content Board, the pre-qualification Stage will consist harnessing records of existing oil and gas industry service providers which will be done through an initial evaluation of relevant industry sectors to consider such as high impact sectors, thereafter a second-level evaluation criteria will be carried out that will evaluate, business Size and sustainability, baseline commitments, regulatory compliance, before selecting the Final Project 100 Beneficiaries.
The Selection Stage Criteria will involve evaluating the business size and sustainability which we are to demonstrate evidence of active business operations and ability to remain in impact operation into the foreseeable future while the regulatory compliance will involve firms demonstrating the nobility as well as their willingness to adopt policies and procedures that support the integrity of project 100 initiatives.
Recall on April 22, 2010, the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act was signed into law, paving the way for a change to how the business of Oil & Gas was done in Nigeria. This includes all activities, connected with the exploration, development, exploitation, transportation and sale of Nigerian crude oil and gas resources.
The NOGICD Act ushered in an era where in-country value became the focus. With the government now leading the charge with legislation and efficient monitoring through the (Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board (NCDMB), rapid transformation began to take place.
The initial impact of the Act has seen great changes being made, with most IOCs making efforts to comply with the provisions of the Local Content Act. An initiative of which is provided amongst others, includes the opportunity for Nigerian independent operators to be given first consideration in the award of oil blocks, oil field licenses, oil lifting licenses and in all projects for which a contract is to be awarded in the Nigerian oil and Gas industry.
It was against this backdrop that Total took the final investment decision to develop Egina in 2013, three years after the Nigerian Oil & Gas Industry Content Development Act became law. Egina is the latest of Total’s deep-water developments, and the third project of its kind developed by Total in Nigeria, after Akpo and Usan.