FG promises connecting OGFZ to national power grid
The Federal Government says it will connect the Oil and Gas Free Zone (OGFZ) at Onne, Port Harcourt, to the national grid to boost the operations of investors in the zone.
Olusegun Aganga, Minister of Trade and Investment, made this promise after an extensive tour of the zone recently, expressed satisfaction with the level of the infrastructure built by the operating company, Integrated Logistics Services (Intels) Limited.
Aganga noted that the zone has become the world’s largest oil and gas free zone, having received investments worth $2.3 billion (N368 billion) from its operator.
Business Day reliably gathered that since 2006, when the oil and gas free zone was established, it has been operating on a 24-hour basis with diesel engine power generators, growing the number of generators currently used at the zone to 160.
Maritime experts believe that the link-up of OGFZ, Onne to the national electricity grid would greatly lower energy costs at the zone, which requires constant power supply for effective operation.
According to them, the volume of business executed at the zone is increasing by the day such that government agencies including the Customs Service (NCS) and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) have jointly collected about N865.6 billion ($5.41 billion) as revenue accruing to the Federal Government from the Zone.
DMS Nigeria Limited, the technical consultants to the Oil and Gas Free Zones Authority (OGFZA), which undertakes the day-to-day management of the free zone, said a total of 150 companies are operating in the zone.
Sunday Wama, the General Manager of DMS, informed the minister that the zone has a projection of another $2.4 billion (N384 billion), which would bring the cumulative investments to about $4.7 billion (N752 billion before 2015, adding that the companies in the zone have created about 30,000 direct and indirect employments to Nigerians.
