Dangote Industries Limited says its subsidiary, Dangote Refinery, has been awarded the National Oil Company of the year by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.

According to a statement made available to our correspondent on Sunday, the award was presented to the company virtually at the 2021 edition of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State recently.

The NCDMB’s Executive Secretary, Mr Simbi Wabote, was quoted as saying that the 2021 NOGOF looked at how projects to date by related organisations, using the criteria per each award category to gauge contributions to the success of Local Content Development within the oil and gas sector.

Wabote added that the award recognised the unique contribution and efforts made by the oil and gas industry per participants nominated across all parts of the industry value chain for the betterment of the wider community and environment.

The Acting General Manager, Learning & Development & Stakeholder Relationship Management, Dangote Projects, Dr Ebele Oputa, said the company had trained 250 young engineers in Refinery Operations outside the country.

She was quoted as saying, “We aim to train over 900 young graduates who are expected to operate the refinery at completion.”

She added that another 10 mechanical engineers had also been trained in the General Electric University in Italy.