The Nigerian Content Development and Monitory Board (NCDMB) has said that deep offshore activities are largely being neglected by Nigerians and that this is one of the major areas in which the board is currently having challenges.
According to the General Manager of the board, Mr. Wole Akinyosoye who was speaking in Lagos last week, part of the local content Act which was passed into law about two years ago was to leverage on the need to develop Nigeria’s deep offshore activities as well as development of capacity in shipping.
The Nigerian Content Development and Monitory Board (NCDMB) has said that deep offshore activities are largely being neglected by Nigerians and that this is one of the major areas in which the board is currently having challenges.
According to the General Manager of the board, Mr. Wole Akinyosoye who was speaking in Lagos last week, part of the local content Act which was passed into law about two years ago was to leverage on the need to develop Nigeria’s deep offshore activities as well as development of capacity in shipping.
He however lamented that Nigeria currently lacks adequate manpower required for participation in offshore activities.
“Today, if you go to any of the deep offshore installations, you will be amazed at the man power profile, before you can see any Nigerian you will go to about 6th or 7th level, it is so because for quite a very long time we have neglected our offshore activities”.
“It is very important for us to know that the future of Nigerian oil and gas industry is also linked to the future of deep offshore activities and this is why it is important for us to partner with NIMASA on the need to develop capacity in the oil and gas industry” he stated.
Akinyosoye maintained that many of the deep offshore facilities in Nigeria ought to be manned by Nigerians, but that in order to do this; the operators require a genuine certification or they must be somebody that has been working for the past 25years, he said that this has made it very important for Nigerians to get more interested in training people for the job.
He also said that the problem has persisted because most Nigerians cannot buy offshore rigs owing to the fact that it is very expensive, but according to him, this is where the real money is.
He explained further that Nigeria is currently only performing well in category 1 ships, “we are doing about 80% in category 1 vessels, but this is not where the money comes from, the money comes from category 3 and 4, in terms of contract, what is hampering us is that we don’t have enough of these vessels available and there are no available Nigerians to man the vessels”.
“Finance is very important but training is more important because, to become a ship captain you don’t only need to know how to navigate, you also need to have some nautical miles under your sleeve”.
To find a lasting solution to this, Akinyosoye explained that the board has started engaging all the oil operators in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry to empower Nigerians.
“It is not enough to tell us that Nigerians cannot do the job, but tell us what you have done to ensure that Nigerians are able to do the job”, he stressed.
He also explained that part of the provisions of the Nigerian Content Law is that there should be a Nigerian content fund, which is about 1% percent of every contract that is awarded in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
According to him, “part of it is going to be used for training; we believe that whatever we are going to do, training is very important.”
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