The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Rt. Hon. Ekperikpe Ekpo, has congratulated Ondo State Governor, Dr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa, for hosting the country’s first methanol production facility, noting that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) is expected to leverage such investments to strengthen upstream operations and enhance value addition in the gas sector.
The minister gave the commendation during a courtesy visit to the Government House in Akure after inspecting the Supertec Methanol and Harmonium Plant in Ore, Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.
He said the project holds significant potential for Nigeria’s industrial development, adding “Because of the importance of this project in your domain, we decided to come on an inspection tour. What interests me is the technological advantage of converting natural gas through this facility to produce methanol, fertilizer and other critical products that our country needs at this point in time”.
Ekpo described the methanol and fertilizer production project in Ore as a massive industrial investment with enormous potential for national economic growth, stressing that the initiative aligns with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to harness Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources for economic transformation and industrial expansion.
The minister also promised to brief the president on the project’s progress ahead of its commissioning, assuring continued collaboration with the Ondo State Government in line with the Federal Government’s Renewed Hope Agenda, particularly in the gas sector.
In his remarks, Governor Aiyedatiwa appreciated the minister’s visit and commended the Ondo State Development and Investment Promotion Agency (ONDIPA) for eliminating bureaucratic bottlenecks that often discourage investors, listing several major investments facilitated through ONDIPA, including a 500,000-barrel-per-day modular refinery and a petrochemical plant for fertilizer production in Ilaje Local Government Area.
The governor further highlighted the Southern Senatorial District as the state’s economic hub, endowed with oil, gas and mineral resources, and hosting strategic projects such as the proposed Deep Seaport and the Ondo-Linyil Industrial Hub, where cassava is being processed into ethanol.
“We have to do this because it is the only way to grow the state’s economy and provide jobs for our people. There is a limit to how many employment opportunities the government alone can create for our teeming youth population. But we believe that creating a peaceful and investment-friendly environment will attract private investors, especially with the unique resources we have,” Aiyedatiwa said.
He reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to economic diversification, emphasizing that private-sector investment is crucial to complementing government efforts in job creation, saying “We are inviting investors to come. The land is available, and we have a lot of minerals here including gold, limestone and many more, and we are now marketing them to the world”.
