Leaders from the Joint Niger Delta Youths Movement have demonstrated against the siting of a $1.5 billion dry dock in Badagry, Lagos State. They specifically cited Nigeria LNG (NLNG), a liquefied natural gas company, and other investors.
Leaders from the Joint Niger Delta Youths Movement have demonstrated against the siting of a $1.5 billion dry dock in Badagry, Lagos State. They specifically cited Nigeria LNG (NLNG), a liquefied natural gas company, and other investors.
Meanwhile NLNG has released a statement saying that it is not the owner of the Badagry Dry Dock Project. "The owner of the proposed dry dock in Badagry is a consortium of other Nigerian companies under the name of Badagry Ship Repair and Maritime Engineering Company (BSMEC) and which NLNG is NOT a part of," the company said in a statement released by spokesperson Dr. Kudo Eresia-Eke.
NLNG's only interest was and still remains, encouraging investors to consider building dry docks in the country to save the nation's foreign exchange and save local ship owners, like ourselves, the trouble of having to go overseas for dry dock services," the statement continued.
While the statement said the company is unable to "dictate" the site for dry dock projects, it is unclear how much influence it has over other investors in the placement of the Badagry Dry Dock Project.
Shipping Position Daily however recalls that, recently, Dr Taiwo Afolabi, chairman, of the ship yard had said that the NLNG has no hands in the dockyard project.
Afolabi, who doubles as chairman of a participating company that formed the consortium comprising Sifax Logistics and Marine Services Limited, was responding to the raging controversy trailing its recent decision to site a $1.5 billion dockyard project in Lagos State.
Speaking in Lagos on behalf of the consortium, Afolabi had said: “BSMEC is the sole owner of the Badagry Dry Dock Project and no one else. BSMEC is made up of five different successful Nigerian companies who came together as core investors to form Badagry Ship Repair and Maritime Engineering Company, which is a joint venture between Sifax Logistics and Marine Services Limited, Energy Nature Limited, GMT Energy Services Limited, Japaul Oil and Maritime Services plc, and SIVC Infrastructure DMCC (Sahara Group Limited).
“Nigeria LNG is not a part of the consortium and is not an investor in the construction of the dry dock project. To be clear, the Badagry Dry Dock will be used for the maintenance of a wide range of oil and gas related vessels, including very large crude carriers (VLCCs), offshore drilling rigs, offshore support vessels, in addition to large LNG carriers.”
However, prior to the recent declaration, the BSMEC consortium had in June, 2015, paid a courtesy visit to the NLNG office in Abuja.
The delegation was led by the Chairman, BSMEC, Dr. Taiwo Afolabi. He had said during the visit that: “The NLNG, as a pioneer promoter of the Nigerian content development, remains an inspiration for Nigerian organisations and a testimony to what is truly achievable by Nigerians through vision, patriotic commitment, discipline, shared values and proactive community development.
“Its organisational structure and processes are worthy of emulation as the fourth largest LNG plant in the world.”
The consortium said feasibility studies for siting the dry dock were carried out on seven locations — Badagry, Lekki FTZ, Ladol Island, Ogogoro Island, Olokola FTZ, Onne and Bonny — before the consultants identified Badagry as the most suitable location for the project.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, NLNG, Mr. Babs Omotowa, had told his visitors that the completion of the dockyard and commencement of dry dock services there by 2020 would be a key strategic achievement for Nigeria.
He said, “This project holds many benefits, one being that LNG vessels, very large crude oil carriers and other ships will be maintained and repaired in this dockyard, which will result in millions of dollars being generated for the Nigerian economy and the avoidance of such foreign expenditures in other locations.
“We have already started reaping low hanging fruits from this project, with over 600 Nigerians being trained in ship building and design at SHI and HHI shipyards in South Korea and several Nigerian products being exported internationally for the first time. The technical partnership with SHI and HHI is one of a kind and it has paid off with the transfer of knowledge to Nigerians who will run this industry in the future.”
Discussion about this post