Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has directed the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to work with oil companies operating in the country to evaluate existing machine shops, dock yards, fabrication yards and other facilities, which could be upgraded to meet the oil industry specifications.
Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, has directed the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) to work with oil companies operating in the country to evaluate existing machine shops, dock yards, fabrication yards and other facilities, which could be upgraded to meet the oil industry specifications.
Worried that many existing facilities were under-utilised and could be harnessed at reduced costs to support industry operations locally, the minister further instructed that recommendations from the evaluation should get to her office before July this year.
She also stated that there was an increasing interest of original equipment manufacturers and investors to set up facilities in Nigeria.
She noted that while the market share of indigenous vessel owners had risen from less than $200 million in 2009 to $1 billion, locally fabrication tonnage had also risen by 40 per cent to 54,000 metric tonnes per annum over the same period.
Confirming this development in a statement last week, the Public Affairs Officer of NCDMB, Mr. Obinna Ezeobi, stated that the minister gave this directive when she led chief executives of international oil companies on a facility visit to SCC Pipe mill in Abuja, as part of the series of planned physical assessments of key local content facilities across the country.
She commended the model used at SCC pipe mill whereby the facilities set up originally to manufacture water supply pipes were upgraded to service the oil and gas Industry.
SCC first manufactured pipes for ExxonMobil which were installed in the company's Edop facility offshore in 2011, thereafter, opened the flood gates for current orders from Shell, Chevron and Agip.
Madueke also explained that the cumulative orders from the operators had not only ensured that the company retained about 350 Nigerian workers, but also had the potential to grow the workforce to 500 with projected work flow from the industry.
The minister stated that on-going establishment of longitudinal submerge-arc welded pipe mill in Yenagoa by Yulong Steel and planned longitudinally welded steel mill in Abeokuta by Vigeo Steel would create over 10,000 direct and ancillary jobs and retain $700 million in the Nigerian economy.
"The projects will also create 3,000 training opportunities as well as other benefits to the Nigerian economy when completed by 2014," he said.
She further explained that many other investors have also expressed interests to establish pipe mills in Nigeria and their efforts must be supported by government.
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