The National Biotechnology Development Agency (NABDA), Rahad Global Investment Limited, the Nigerian subsidiary of Morocco’s RVD Equipment Industries, and NNPC Energy Services Limited (NNPC-EnServe) recently signed, in Abuja, a tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the deployment of biotechnology in the oil industry.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that under this memorandum, the three organizations will partner to employ biotechnology to solve persistent problems in the Nigerian oil industry.
This partnership was formed in order to use biotechnology tools for cleaning oil reservoirs, recovering crude oil and kerosene, and remediating oil-contaminated soils.
On this occasion, NABDA’s Managing Director, Abdullahi Mustapha, stated that the use of biotechnology tools can solve problems in the oil industry sector.
Mustapha added that this is part of the measures to strengthen the rejuvenation of the economy and environmental sustainability, noting that “NABDA is responsible for the application of biotechnology in the country.”
“Researchers from NABDA are working with Rahad Global Investment Limited to develop the technology, while NNPC Energy Services is responsible for its implementation,” stated NABDA’s Managing Director.
Mustapha explained that “through the application of biotechnology, the soil will be regenerated where the mining took place and kerosene will be recovered instead of just destroying the area where chemicals were previously used.”
For her part, the Managing Director of NNPC Energy Services Limited, Sophia Mbakwe, emphasized that the actions outlined in this memorandum are an ongoing process to keep the environment safe, noting that the implementation of this memorandum aims to ensure that sanitation and cleaning of the tank farm is conducted properly according to the schedule set by the team.
“In a similar context, our tripartite memorandum involving NABDA, Rahad, and NNPC-EnServe is designed to achieve the domestication, deployment, and commercialization of biotechnology tools in tank farm cleanup, crude oil, and kerosene recovery, remediation of oil-contaminated soils, among others,” explained Mbakwe.
In a similar context, the CEO of Rahad Global Investment Limited, Driss Chbihi, expressed his satisfaction with NABDA’s excellent capacities and know-how in biotechnology.
Chbihi stressed that this would allow Nigeria, Africa’s leading oil power, to be the first country to reduce oil discharge that pollutes soil and groundwater by almost 90%, further noting that Nigeria would be the first country to generalize oil waste treatment by non-polluting biotechnologies at a national level.
The CEO of Rahad Global Investment Limited also added that Nigeria would gradually replace mechanical and chemical techniques that result in polluting discharge.
“This will create hundreds of jobs through the gradual domestication of this technology and generate significant revenue in Nigeria through bioremediation which is an integral part of this project,” noted Chbihi.
Chbihi concluded that “this set of income, jobs, environmental remediation, bio, and high technology will turn this project into a showcase of technical mastery at the international level.”
