By Banji Ayoola
Hopes are brightening that the much awaited exploitation of the vast bitumen deposits in Ondo State will soon begin in earnest, as 11 private firms have shown interest in the project, which, expectedly, would turn around the fortune of the state and the Country at large.
The firms have formally indicated their interest to partner with the Ondo State Bitumen Exploration and Exploitation Company (BEECON), through the State Development and Investment Agency, ONDIPA, to commence the exploitation and exploration of the abundant bitumen reserves in the state as soon as possible.
The project\’s take off has lingered since the administration of the late Governor Adebayo Adefarati, which put it in the front burner of its programmes, and committed personnel and resources to ensure its take off.
Adefarati, who built several facilities in Akure the state capital, and Ore, the emerging business and commercial nerve centre of Ondo State, and set up the state Bitumen Exploration and Exploitation Company, BEECON, to oversee the project, went as far as inviting the then President Olusegun Obasanjo to the state, in demonstration of his seriousness about involving the Federal Government deeply in the project and ensuring its speedy take off. Following up on the former President\’s visit, the Federal Government set up offices in the state to coordinate activities and give the necessary on-the-spot federal input to plans, indicating the seriousness also of the Obasanjo administration towards the project.
But along the line, the project ran into bad waters, as successive administrations, hampered mainly by lack of the necessary political will to commit the required huge financial resources to the project, and lacking the zeal, the political will of Adefarati to push the project through despite all odds, consigned the project to the back seat.
Particularly, successive administrations both at the state and national levels,were faced with the bitter truth that exploration and exploitation of bitumen are more expensive, and capital intensive than those of crude oil. Besides they were confronted with the fact that government alone could not face the project. Investors both local and foreign, in large numbers are needed as partners.
This has been a major reason for the delay. However, with the new development, which will serve as an incentive to attract more investors, the take off is imminent.
Ondo state is reputed to have the second largest bitumen deposit in the world after Canada, and the largest in Africa with over 42billion cubic reserves bitumen of the highest quality.
The bitumen belt running across Edo, Delta, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos States, has its centre located within the southern part of Ondo State, particularly in Irele, Okitipupa and Gbejuloda axis, a vast area of land which sits virtually on bitumen.
With the steps taken so far by the Oluwarotimi Akeredolu administration, Nigeria may soon be on the way to having another fabulously rich source of foreign exchange earning apart from crude oil, whose fortune has dwindled in the recent.
This administration has made relentless efforts to attract the attention of world class firms to the rich natural endowment in the state .
Last year, it hosted diplomatic communities to a dinner in Abuja to showcase the various investment opportunities in Ondo state to the outside world . High commissions and embassies that were present at the dinner included those of Britain, China, Australia, India, Japan, Korea, Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa.
Multi-lateral agencies like the World Bank, United Nations International Children’s Education Fund (UNICEF), Africa Development Bank (AfDB), United Nations Development Program (UNDP), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), US Public Health Service (USPHS), African Development Bank (AfDB), were also there.
Consequent upon this, eleven private firms were in Akure, the state capital on Thursday 17th May, 2018 to showcase their technical and financial capabilities. The event was tagged “BEECON Partnership Engagement “.
In his welcome address, the Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Development and Investment, who doubles as Director of Business Development and Investment Management at ONDIPA, Mr. Femi Akarakiri said bitumen exploration will provide not less than 30,000 direct jobs in the state.
According to him, bitumen was discovered in the state in 1904 but nothing has been done on it due to the expensive cost of exploration which the government cannot invest on alone, hence the need to invite investors to partner the state.
He explained that the BEECON Partnership Engagement programme is aimed at fashioning out modalities to mine bitumen product and to make the process transparent.
“The purpose of this programme is to bring partners to Ondo state to partner with BEECON, we want to allow private organizations invest on bitumen exploration, we have the licences and we are calling on private sectors to partner with us, to bring their finances and expertises to explore the product.
Some of the investors present at the event for presentations included, Energy and Mineral Resources Limited, BML energy, CRCC construction group, Globaloilsands, Liquefied Resources (LR) USA LTD.
Others are Zenilum Company LTD, CCC Snirand Technologies LTD, and Drichels Technologies.
