Group Calls On Buhari To Approve Commencement Of $13.5Bn Zabazaba Deepwater Project

*** Wants President To Give Project To Nigerians As Christmas Gift

THE Niger Delta Indigenous Movement For Radical Change (NDIMRC), has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to urgently give approval to the $ 13.5Bn Zabazaba Deepwater Project, imploring the President to give  the Zabazaba Deepwater Project to Nigerians as  Christmas Gift.

Ibe Kachikwu
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources

The oil monitoring group made the call in an open letter to the President and made available to our correspondent.

The letter was entitled: “The Urgent Need for Mr. President to give Approval to the $13. 5Bn Zabazaba Deepwater Project: Let Zabazaba Deepwater Project be a surprise Christmas gift for Nigerians” and signed by the group’s President, Nelly Emma, Secretary, John Sailor and Public Relations Officer (PRO), Stanley Mukoro.

The group wrote that;”First and foremost, we write to congratulate the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari on his 75th birthday celebration and to wish him more fruitful years and wisdom to continue to pilot the affairs of the country.”

“Mr President, the Niger Delta Indigenous Movement For Radical Change, is a  well known oil monitoring group based in the oil rich Niger Delta Region and we have been agitating for a better deal for all Nigerians”, the group said.

“Mr President, we are writing you this urgent letter on the need for you to do the needful now and give approval for the $13.5Bn Zabazaba Deepwater Project. This is an important project and your administration should not waste further time in giving approval for its take off.

“Your Excellency, the  President, we want to place it on record that Agip is developing the Zabazaba field with proven reserves of 560 million barrels of oil as a standalone development in the eastern portion of the Niger Delta in water depths ranging from 1,200 to 2,400 metres. The main packages in the Zabazaba project include the construction of the Floating Production Storage Offloading(FPSO) units, subsea installations and drilling rigs”, the oil monitoring group added.

They continued: “Mr President, this  Agip-operated Zabazaba project will also set a new record in local content development as the major contractors bidding for the project  have submitted competitive costs and concrete plans to fabricate and integrate over 50 per cent of the topsides of the FPSO in the country.

“Mr President, from our findings, Agip plans to achieve first oil in 2020 and is determined to start execution of the project in the fourth quarter of this year. We urge you to give the nod for the take off of the project as it is too precious  to Nigerians.”

While lamenting that Nigerians were being sacked on a daily basis, the group opined that  the importance of the Zabazaba Deepwater Project cannot be overemphasized.

“On a daily basis, Nigerians are thrown into the labour market with no hope of getting another job. We have lost count of how many Nigerians have been thrown into the labour market in the last few months and the number is on the increase.

“But Mr President,  this project is capable of generating over eight million jobs for Nigerians and there is a great hope for those who have been thrown into the labour market and other Nigerians seeking for employment”, the group posited.

Continuing,the group stated that;”The Zabazaba Deepwater Project is also capable of giving employment to many of the repentant Militants in the Niger-Delta Region as well as repentant Boko Haram insurgents in the North,” and therefore urged Mr President to give a nod to the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu and  Agip to carry on with this project that will further  give credence to his administration and the All Progressives Congress (APC).

“Mr President, the Zabazaba Deepwater Project will be a good Christmas gift to Nigerians if you take the bull by the horns and do the needful now. We enjoin you not to let go of this Golden opportunity” the group said.