The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation-led oil and gas industry intervention initiative on COVID-19 has commenced the third phase of their support programme.

According to NNPC, the phase commenced with the groundbreaking ceremony for a permanent emergency and infectious diseases hospital for the South-South region in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.

NNPC’s Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Kennie Obateru, said in a statement issued on Sunday that the event flagged–off the plan by the intervention group to deliver lasting medical infrastructure across the six geopolitical zones in the country.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, who spoke at the event, said the project was part of the Nigerian oil industry coalition initiative led by the NNPC to support the nation’s efforts to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said the oil industry was contributing about N21bn worth of support provided through internal procurement processes of contributing companies.

Sylva said Bayelsa State was considered a suitable site for the project given its pioneering role in the history of oil and gas in the country and its current contribution of about 40 per cent to onshore crude oil output.

The Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, who spoke through the corporation’s Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services, Bala Wunti, disclosed that the corporation was working with its joint venture partners across the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors to support the health sector.

He said that the NNPC-led intervention had allocated the N21bn worth of support to various international oil companies, indigenous operators with joint venture stakes across the oil sector.

He explained that the infectious diseases hospital to be sited on a 1,586 square metre-space would serve as zonal isolation centre for COVID-19 and would serve as a referral hospital for communicable diseases after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Managing Director, Nigeria Agip Oil Company, Lorenzo Fiorillo, stated at the event that the outbreak of COVID-19 disease had put a lot of strain on healthcare systems and personnel globally.

Fiorillo who spoke through the Head of Community Relations, NAOC, Macwon Jitubo, said the company remained sympathetic to help navigate the threat posed by COVID-19 pandemic, which he explained, had resulted in thousands of deaths worldwide.

He said the project being delivered in Bayelsa State would engender a valuable medical asset to the South-South region of the country.

Bayelsa State Governor, Douye Diri, who earlier applauded Sylva for attracting the project to the state, performed the ground-breaking ceremony in company of other dignitaries.