Shell Moves To End Gas Flare-Out

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) has taken delivery of detailed engineering design for a project that will put out gas flares in three fields in Western Niger Delta.
The Nigerian Technical Company (NETCO), the engineering arm of NNPC, won the contract in December 2007 for design of the Associated Gas Solution project for Otumara node, which covers Otumara, Saghara and Opuama fields.
The company said in a statement that project involves the collection of gas from the three fields to a central processing facility at Otumara, which will treat and send it for domestic use through the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS). The detailed design will form the basis for construction of the central processing facility, associated pipelines, booster stations as well as instrumentation and control.
Receiving the design package in Port Harcourt, Project Manager Toyin Olagunju said the award of the contract to NETCO was part of a plan to improve the capability of Nigerian companies in this area of engineering.
"We are pleased that the job was done in-country with Nigerian engineers gaining valuable skills and experience.",he said.
NETCO executed the detailed design with the support of their technical consultants IMPaC, at a cost of over N900 million. Under the terms of the contract, NETCO handled the piping, civil, electrical, mechanical, corrosion and HSE/QA-QC aspects of the job from their office in Lagos, while IMPaC worked on process, instrumentation and telecommunication in Port Harcourt.
Executive Director of NETCO, Samuel Babatunde said: "This is the first time we are handling design on a large scale for SPDC. The skills we have acquired will equip us better to serve the oil and gas industry in Nigeria."
Deputy Project Manager of IMPaC, Christian Obot commended SPDC for the confidence in the collaboration between NETCO and IMPaC, "as this was largely responsible for the successful completion of the design."
The completion of the detailed design paves the way for construction, procurement and installation of facilities. The Otumara project is part of SPDC’s effort to harness Nigeria’s huge gas invested some $3 billion in gas gathering projects; an additional $3 billion is needed to resources for profitable use, and end flaring of gas in its operations.
Since 2000, SPDC has complete them. Funding and security challenges have delayed implementation of the projects.