NCDMB Canvasses Support Of Multinationals For Growing Local Firms
The need for multinational oil and gas companies to support and patronize local firms operating in the country has been stressed, as the survival of such firms would result in a boost for the nation’s economy.
Apart from buoying up the economy, employment opportunities will also be created for the teeming unemployed population, according to the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Felix Omatsola Ogbe.
Ogbe said this when he undertook a undertook a tour of facilities at Brightwaters Energy Limited, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, in company of senior officials of Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC).
The NCDMB boss recalled that Brightwaters had performed well in the execution of projects in the exploration and production segment of the industry over the years with a clientele that included SPDC and Chevron Nigeria Limited, among other major oil and gas operators and said he was convinced that the company has the capacity required for key scopes in upcoming industry projects.
The tour of the company’s facilities was a follow up to his earlier visit to the company and some pipe coating facilities in May last year, where he had pledged the Board’s support for local service companies, giving them opportunities in the oil and gas industry and creating jobs in the economy.
Tuesday’s visit was to assess Brightwaters Energy’s upgrade of its technical capabilities, which would position them for upcoming industry projects.
He spoke of the Board’s determination to ensure that capabilities of local oil and gas service companies are known and adequately utilised by operating companies in the industry to boost local content and provide employment, in line with the economic aspirations of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration.
Earlier, the Community and Corporate Affairs Manager of Brightwaters, Mr. Solomon Aluge, had confirmed that the firm had been engaging the team from SPDC and was equipped to carry out heavy or light fabrication works. He indicated that Brightwaters has carried out many onshore and offshore pipeline engineering and installation works for various clients.
Speaking on the scope of operations of his company in the oil and gas sector, he pointed out that Brightwaters was mobilizing for Chevron and Tulcan pipeline works at the moment.
In a welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of Brightwaters, Mr. Scott Gregory, expressed happiness at the presence of the NCDMB boss and the representatives of SPDC at the meeting, assuring all that the company had enormous capabilities for services in the oil and gas industry.
He provided technical details of a number of projects executed by the company offshore and onshore in its many years of operation in Nigeria, noting that some of the upcoming field projects were well within the company’s competencies.
Among key facilities visited in the tour were a blast furnace, where the process of smelting was demonstrated with hot compressed air being blasted into a furnace from below, and a multipurpose offshore construction vessel known as Sea Horizon Derrick Lay Barge, with a heavy-lift capacity of 1,320 tons.
Marine construction activities performed by the vessel, according to the company, include “installation of rigid and flexible pipelines, risers and umbilicals [flexible hoses that connect surface equipment to subsea equipment].”
