After due technical and commercial examination, the management of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base (LADOL) is set to start the construction of the company’s planned floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO).
The firm’s technology institute is also billed for take-off in Lagos.
Its Executive Chairman, Oladipo Jadesimi, told The Nation on the sideline of the Nigeria Oil and Gas conference in Abuja, that the company has begun to invest in requisite facilities for the integration of the FSPO, while the construction of the technology institute would start very soon.
He said LADOL is partnering Samsung Heavy Industries for the development of the FPSO and the construction of the technology institute, to be called Samsung Nigeria Technology Academy (SaNTA). The institute is expected to impart the requisit technology and skills in various aspects of the oil and gas operations on Nigerians.
Jadesimi said: “On the construction of the FPSO. We have gone far. We are now preparing to invest in the facilities that will be required for the integration of the FPSO.” He also dismissed fears over the draft of the LADOL free zone considering the massive size of an FPSO. He said the water depth of zone is deep enough.
“As you know, the FPSO is a very large vessel and the channel is deep enough to accommodate the safe inward and outward passage. Before you embark on any project, you will do thorough investigation into all technical aspects that have to do with safe operation.”
He said the projects have a lot of prospects, contrary to what some stakeholders believe. He explained that when the promoters of LADOL embarked on the project some 10 years ago, their target market was not just Nigerian waters. It is clear that the whole of the West African sub-region was and still highly prospective in oil and gas, which means that there is very high likelihood of discoveries, he said, adding that the assumed prospects have been proved right with the discoveries in Ghana, Sierra-Leone and Liberia.
“These are all offshore discoveries and all of them will require facilities that we are preparing to execute for the whole region because the discoveries are all offshore and as you know, our specialty and focus is solely on the offshore.
“Expenses on the onshore are all taken care of and our focus is in the offshore part of the project,” he added.
Jadesimi said Nigeria still has dearth of technical capability, especially for complex technology based oil and gas infrastructure, such as FPSO.
“It is not just in oil and gas. We are not there yet. We need to build capacity in all sectors and in all industries, but with respect to the deep offshore, I agree that it is very complex, however, we need to make a start. Making a start initially means combining with world class operators that will feature in the venture, but the most important factor is to commence immediately on training Nigerians and increasing capacity and capability.
“One of the things that we are starting very soon is the construction of technology institute in LADOL, in conjunction with Samsung that will train Nigerians in various aspects in deep offshore operations. That is the way to do it. We have to build indigenous capacity by training and giving opportunity of workplace experience, among others.
“This hasn’t happened before, but it is happening now. For that we have to thank our President for the Local Content Act, because this Act now mandates increasing percentage of contracts to locals, which is essential because it means increase in investments, not just from sale of oil and gas, but from investment in the assets that will produce this oil and gas.
“We have trained Nigerians and many of them are active all over the world, but they didn’t have the opportunity in Nigeria. So this will create the opportunity.
“Whether it is FPSO or any other technology, the critical factor is clearly the extent to which we have indigenous capability. If we have institute of technology to train people, it doesn’t have to be any particular technology.
“When Norway first discovered deep offshore oil and gas, at that time they didn’t have any experience or technology in deep offshore, but because they are highly industrialised economically with highly experienced populace, within a space of 20 years, they had developed indigenous technology of the highest order in deep water oil and exploration and production. So the key is to acquire the technology.
“I am sure that we will find brilliant Nigerian scientists that would themselves evolve new technologies and that is the only way to go. People are the most important resource anywhere.
“Another example is Singapore that doesn’t produce a barrel of oil or gas and yet, they probably have the largest refining capacity in the world, which means they are adding tremendous value locally to oil and gas industry.
“We need to invest in people, technology acquisition and once we have these, we have everything. The only way is conscious effort in the direction of training people and increasing local capacity,” he stated.
