Nigerdock leads hope for local FPSO topsides integration

Government’s drive to progress the gains of the Nigerian Content policy from small to medium technical job packages to big ticket jobs mustered momentum with the delivery of the biggest locally built production facility by Nigerdock.

In the landmark capacity demonstration, Nigerdock loaded out the Meren Gas Gathering and Compression Platform and also the entire structures for the Sonam Non-associated Gas Wellhead Project.  

The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) described the feat as monumental leap towards full in-country fabrication of production facilities, including the ultimate Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel traditionally contracted to foreign firms and built in foreign fabrication yards.

Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr. Ernest Nwapa, an engineer, stated that the delivery of the job by Nigerdock on schedule and budget signaled evolution of local industrial capacity for fabrication of the nation’s production facilities, a critical factor, according to him, in the policy strategy to domicile oil industry jobs and retain the huge industry budget for in-country spend.

Specifically, Mr. Nwapa pointed at the scale and complexity of the job as major progress towards the goal of in-country of topsides integration of floating production, storage and offtake vessels in Nigeria to weed out all costs associated with execution of similar projects in foreign fabrication yards.

He said the capacity and sophistication of fabrication facilities in Nigerdock, it has have made it reasonable to start considering full in-country fabrication of oil and gas production facilities.

The UNION reports that Nigerdock which built Nigeria’s firs locally made single point mooring buoy for the first big deepwater field development in the country has been recording leading milestones in local fabrication of sophisticated facilities for the industry.

The company had also loaded out Nigeria’s first locally fabricated wellhead platforms for joint venture fields operated by Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited as well as industry biggest SPM buoys deployed in Nigeria’s deepwater fields offshore Niger Delta.

From ship repair and rig repairs, fabrication of pressure vessels, pipes, jackets and many other industry facilities, Nigerdock is fast becoming the face of local content in the African industry play.

In delivering the Meren Gas Gathering and Compression Platform and the entire structures for the Sonam Non-associated Gas Wellhead Project, Nigerdock stated that it fabricated over 7,000 tons of steel over the last 3 years.

Executive Director of the Company, Mr. Mansur Jarmakani, pointed out that the MEREN and SONAM Jackets are the largest of such facilities fabricated in-country, adding that each of them weighs well over 1,000 tons.

With over 700 workers on average throughout the whole project duration, he said,  “SONAM NWP Topside is the largest in-country built at total weight of 3,500 tons fully equipped before load-out.”

He added that the copany has achieved 1.7 million free man-hours cumulated on both project scopes (MEREN and SONAM) without lost time on injury (LTI), insisting that the safety points were still accumulating.

Also stressing the high level of local content in the company’s operations, Mr. Jarkamani stated that over 150,000 man-hours of local content specialized training have been performed under the project scope.

According to him, the striking part part is that the project was being completed within the schedule and budget agreed with clients in order to meet the offshore installation windows.

“Various loadouts are planned for December 2014 / Jan 2015,” he said.

According to him, “the project has been a huge success and demonstrates the enormous benefits the NOGIC act is bringing to this country by driving investment into Infrastructure and people and giving the opportunity for indigenous companies like Nigerdock to demonstrate their capability to deliver on schedule and on budget.”  

The Meren Gas Gathering and Compression Platform and Sonam Non-associated Gas Wellhead Project are conceived by joint venture partners to meet the domestic gas supply obligations in the operations of Chevron Nigeria Limited.

Clients of Digerdock on the project, Chevron Nigeria Limited (CNL), are the operators of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC/CNL) Joint Venture.

Scope of the job included construction of two new platforms including the Meren field (GGCP) and the Sonam field (NWP).

On completion, the GGCP and NWP are expected to deliver a combined 420 million cubic feet per day (mmcf/d) of natural gas to the Escravos Gas Project (EGP), representing a major leap towards using natural gas mined from CNL’s operations and eliminating gas flaring from its assets.

The work is being undertaken by Hyundai Heavy Industries in South Korea with all in-country scope subcontracted to Nigerdock Nigeria PLC FZE on Snake Island, Lagos.

Checvron states that the choice of Nigerdock for the fabrication of packages in the project underlined it’s commitment to and compliance with the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act 2010.

The law requires all operating companies in the country’s petroleum industry to domicile all oil and gas jobs for local execution unless where local capacity is convincingly lacking.

Nigerdocks Scope is the Fabrication of the jacket, piles and bridges for the Meren Gas Gathering and Compression Platform - and also the entire structures for the Sonam  Non-associated Gas Wellhead Projects.  

The delivery of the Meren x and Sonam platform components is significant but it is only part of the string of intricate jibs that Nigerdock has lined up for load out over the next quarter.

Checks by The UNION showed that the company will also deliver 11 units of the quarters for the Egina deepwater floating production facilities by January. Six of packages, it was gathered, are already under construction.

The Egina deepwater field is the third to be developed by Total on behalf of other partners and interest holders in the oil block.

The company is also busy with the construction of Total’s Ofon platform deck. Jackets of the project were loaded out from Nigerdock in January.

In assessing the performance of indigenous oil service providers in the country, Mr. Nwapa stated that enactment of Nigerian Content Policy by President Goodluck Jonathan has ended the traditional drain on the Nigerian economy.

He also said the law has provided the opportunity for Nigerian companies to prove their mettle in the industry services.  He added that the law has allowed indigenous companies to demonstrate capacity, confidence and patriotic mindset.

He said the law would continue to be implemented until all fabrication works for Nigerian oil industry operations have been fully recovered from Korea and Europe.

The UNION reports that all the offshore production facilities in the Nigerian petroleum industry are traditionally fabricated outside the country; a practice Mr. Nwapa said has remained a huge financial drain on the country.

He said that all foreign partners in the fabrication of industry facilities must establish yards in Nigeria in conformity with the Nigerian Content Act. He said that the law would continue to drive investments in the domestic petroleum industry.

He made it clear that the local capacity development in the petroleum industry could be replicated in the other sectors of the economy to give Nigerian investors the opportunity to repatriate their businesses.

In assuring that the NCDMB would continue to ensure flow of jobs to local fabrication yards in the country, he emphasized that the achievements of the board were made possible with the political support from the Presidency.

Earlier, Mr. Jarmakani said the Nigerian Content policy has presented not just the opportunity for contracts for the local companies; it has provided value addition to the local economy by creating jobs and developing skills for medium to long term targets for 100 percent in-country industry job execution.

According to him, the Nigerian Content Law provided challenges that have turned to opportunities for success. The policy has created capacity, employment and opportunities for Nigeria and her citizens.

In pledging the company’s commitment to realizing the objectives of the Nigerian Content policy, Mr. Jarmakani said Nigerdock was working to acquire world class capacity for facility fabrication and vessel building.

On his own, the Deputy Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited, Mr. Dipo Shodiya, expressed delight that the fabrications at Nigerdock were delivered with high safety records, adding that offshore installation of the facilities would begin in January in line with Chevron’s programme to harness over 300 million standard cubic feet of gas per day (mmscf/d) from contiguous oilfields for valorization.

He said that the Sonam project would be delivered with significant local content, adding that the jacket would be the biggest ever fabrication work delivered by any yard in Nigeria.

The job, he said, entailed over 4600 metric tons of fabrication work and provided the right opportunity to further progress gains of the Nigerian Content policy. He also pointed out that local capacity demonstrated by Nigerdock presented huge opportunity for Nigerian petroleum industry.

He said that the performance of the company in delivering the jobs enhanced the credentials of the Nigerian oil service providers for domiciliation of big ticket jobs for in-country execution. He pointed out that Nigerian companies now earned more opportunity for bigger jobs.