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Bitumen Exploration To Lower Road Construction Costs – FG
Olamilekan Adegbite, the Minister of Mines and Steel Development, has stated that the cost of road development in the country will eventually decrease due to local bitumen manufacturing.
This was said by the minister during a news conference in Abuja on the concession of the delimited Nigerian bitumen blocks, as the country began the process of local bitumen manufacturing.
Local bitumen manufacturing, according to Adegbite, would save the country’s foreign cash while also generating revenue for the government.
The minister also disclosed that the country’s bitumen deposits are ranked sixth in the world in terms of reserve size as he further said that the nation was endowed with a bitumen reserve size of 42.74 billion metric tonnes, which had remained unexploited for years.
He said that the country was now poised to begin the production of bitumen locally as it had appointed a transaction advisor to oversee the process.
“To ensure that Nigeria’s bitumen resources are fully harnessed for industrial and infrastructural development, I constituted a nine-member Ministerial Bitumen Development Committee on 31 January 2020.
“The Committee carried out an inventory of internal existing infrastructure; compiled available geological information; re-established contact with previous interested companies and developed a framework for transparent allocation of the Bitumen resources.
“An important part of the Committee’s recommendations was to finalize the process of engaging a Transaction Advisor to ensure the concession process is open, transparent and in accordance with global best practices as enshrined in the Nigerian Mineral and Mining Act, 2007. The Bureau of Public Procurement issued a notification of no-objection on June 16, 2021.
“Subsequently, the Ministry of Mines and Steel Development issued a letter of award on November 11, 2021, to PricewaterhouseCoopers to act as its Transaction Advisor and Program Manager for the concessioning of bitumen blocks to potential investors.”
The minister also revealed that many international and local investors had expressed interest in bidding for the bitumen blocks.
Adegbite revealed that the country was endowed with high-grade bitumen which was easy to mine due to its proximity to the surface.
“My office has been bombarded by several interested party both locally and internationally and I have always told them to wait for when the process is opened for bidding, which would be transparent and in accordance with best international practices.
