Julius Berger to Build Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre

By Aduragbemi Omiyale

A leading construction company, Julius Berger Nigeria Plc, has been awarded the contract to build the Oloibiri Museum and Research Centre (OMRC) in Bayelsa State for about N117 billion.

The contract for the project was approved on Wednesday at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari.

A statement issued by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) disclosed that the project will kick off before the end of the first quarter of this year and would be completed in 30 months.

The museum and research centre will close a significant gap in the nation’s quest for homegrown technology inputs to service exploration and production activities in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.

Recall that about 66 years ago, crude oil was discovered in commercial quantities at Oloibiri, Bayelsa State, by Shell D’Arcy.

The establishment of OMRC has been at the concept stage for over three decades, and the inability to progress to the construction phase is viewed as a historical oversight as an operational museum and research centre would preserve the heritage and developments in the oil and gas sector similar to what obtains in other oil-producing nations.

Details of the project indicate that it has four development partners comprising NCDMB, the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF), Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), and the Bayelsa State Government, to contribute to the development of the monument in the ratio of 40, 30, 20 and 10 per cent, respectively.

The project team for the symbolic project was first launched in August 2020 by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, with the inauguration of key project committees and the setting of delivery timelines.

The historical essence of the project is to convert the location where the first oil was discovered into a monumental edifice that would preserve the heritage and developments in the oil and gas sector. The socio-economic impact of the project includes employment generation, tourism, research & technology development and integration of oil and gas host communities into the mainstream developmental narrative of the country.