The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is seeking about $15bn to develop a gas industrial park patterned after the Xenel Petrochemical Plant in Saudi Arabia and the Nagarjuna Fertilizer Plant in India.

The top management of the corporation led by the Group Executive Director, Gas and Power, Dr. David Ige, said during a presentation to the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission in Abuja on Tuesday that NNPC was counting on the Federation Account as a veritable source of funding for the project.

The Head of Public Relations, RMAFC, Mr. Ibrahim Mohammed, confirmed the meeting in a statement made available to our correspondent in Abuja.

The NNPC delegation also identified state governments and local governments across the country as veritable sources of funding for the multibillion naira project.

Ige explained the NNPC Gas Master Plan Policy Intervention across the entire value chain of production, processing and marketing, and urged RMAFC to drum support for the project.

According to the statement, the NNPC director stressed that corporation was desirous of developing a multi-billion dollar gas-based industrial park fashioned after Xenel and Nagarjuna.

He said the facility was estimated to gulp between $15bn and $20bn in anticipated investment with additional investments in infrastructure and utilities to be provided by a special purpose vehicle constituted from willing investors and the Federal Government.

The NNPC official said when completed, the project would stimulate a geographically dispersed industrialisation of Nigeria and unprecedented job creations estimated at over five million jobs across the entire value chain in the upstream, midstream and downstream sub-sectors.

To ensure the successful take off and completion of the gigantic project, Ige called on RMAFC to join NNPC in sensitising critical stakeholders, especially the three tiers of government, so as to attract massive investment to the sector.

Speaking at the meeting, the Chairman, RMAFC, Mr. Elias Mbam, said it was necessary for state governments, especially those in the Niger Delta area, to invest in gas infrastructure to harness the full potential of Nigeria's natural gas resources.

Mbam observed that given the huge natural gas endowment in the Niger Delta, state governments in the region could exploit their comparative advantage in domestic gas production by forging closer economic ties and jointly investing in the provision of gas infrastructure for enhanced revenue generation.

Source: http://odili.net/news/source/2013/mar/13/813.html