$ 16BN GAS CITY PROJECT READY FOR GROUND BREAKING, SAYS UDUAGHAN***President Jonathan to perform ceremony soon

By Our Correspondent

All is now set for the ground breaking ceremony of the $16 billion Gas City Project located at Ogidigben in Warri South West Local Government Area of Delta State, the State Governor, Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan has revealed.

Governor Uduaghan who undertook an inspection visit to the project site on Wednesday told reporters that President Goodluck Jonathan would in a few weeks perform the ground breaking ceremony.

“The ground breaking will take place in the next few weeks. Mr. President will come here to do the ground breaking. I know it is going to be very soon. They will soon give us a date. We are quite ready. You can see that the site is ready for the ground breaking,” he said.

Dr. Uduaghan said that the Gas City is a public-private partnership project involving the Federal Government, some private investors and the Delta State Government which is the host state.

According to him, the gas city being the first in the country, would host three major projects, a gas processing plant, a fertiliser plant and a petrochemical plant, adding, “There are other projects that will spring up thereafter.

“It is called a gas city because apart from those three projects there is going to be a big housing estate. There is going to be a deep sea port that NPA is going to construct.”

Governor Uduaghan explained, “The gas processing plant will act as a feedstock to the petrochemical and the fertiliser plants. The three projects will cost over $16 billion.

“It is a private public partnership between the Federal Government through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, working with private investors and off course the Delta State Government also being part of the project as the host state of the project.”

The first part of the project, the governor added involved development of infrastructure, “To develop the infrastructure you will first of all prepare the land. Preparation of the land means the bush clearing which has started, again there will be excavation and sand filling.”

Dr. Uduaghan emphasised that the project when completed will turn Delta State into the industrial base of Nigeria, adding that it has multiplier economic benefits ranging from employment generation to providing gas for the nation’s power plants, thereby improving power supply in the country.

He dismissed media reports insinuating a possible relocation of the project, stressing, “Let me assure everybody that this project is not leaving this site. It has come to stay. Mr. President will come and do the ground breaking and the other processes will continue.”

Uduaghan informed that the intra-leadership tussle at Ugborodo, the host community, has been resolved and that he would soon inaugurate the committee that would liaise between the Federal Government and the community on the project.

Governor Uduaghan appealed to the host community to continue to maintain the peace in the area, noting, “My message always to the community is that what is coming here is unimaginable. What they are even fighting for is just like fighting for crumbs of a bigger pie that is coming. They should look more into the future. What is coming here once it succeeds generations unborn will benefit so much from it.”

Mr. Tom Grousser, Project Director of Julius Berger, the contractor handling the project, had informed the governor that the company mobilised to site in January and has completed 60 per cent of bush clearing which will be completed in August.

In another development, Governor Uduaghan while on a site visit to the proposed Marine University, Okenrenkoko has expressed joy about the quality of work being done at an International Diving School, Kurutie.

Uduaghan, who was conducted round the project by Piniki Azaiye, told reporters that the Marine University project would take off from the diving school.