We Will Do Everything Possible To Support Oloibiri Museum, Research Centre, Kyari Says At Ground Breaking Ceremony

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, Mele Kyari on Tuesday attended the Ground-breaking ceremony of Oloibiri Museum and Research Center.

The event which was held in Ogbia Local Government Area of Bayelsa was attended by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources Timipre Sylva and other top officials of government.

Oloibiri is a historic community where commercial crude oil was 1st discovered on Jan 15, 1956.

The Oloibiri Museum and Research Center will be erected at the location where commercial quantities of oil were first discovered in 1957 by Royal Dutch Shell. The event is coming 66 years after the historic discovery of hydrocarbon resources, which became a turning point for the Nigerian economy.

Kyari said that with the transitioning of the NNPC into a Limited Company, it now belongs to all Nigerians.

He said, “We will do everything possible to support this.
That is why in NNPC Limited, we are determined to ensure value is returned to everyone, particularly where the value is created.

“We will do everything possible to support this (Oloibiri Museum & Research Center) Project.”

The Museum and Research Center is being developed as a collaboration between the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) and the Bayelsa State Government (BYSG).

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) had on February 8 awarded the contract for the Phase-1 Engineering, Procurement & Construction of the OMRC to Julius Berger.

The Museum and Research Center would correct a historical oversight that lasted for several decades during which time the people of Bayelsa State complained that they had nothing to show for being the birthplace of oil and gas production in Nigeria.

The project would place Nigeria among other oil-producing nations that established oil and gas museums to recognise and preserve the heritage and origin of their oil and gas production.

The facility include the provision of a suitable location where historic developments, data, equipment, and tools used in the Nigerian oil and gas industry will be stored for posterity and provision of a Research Center where research prototypes from the industry can be tested against the requirements of the industry.

The museum will equally encourage tourism, and integration of oil and gas host communities into the development of the sector.