03 September 2015, Lagos – The decision of General Electric to utilise local talents for most of its operations in Nigeria is paying off as 14 young graduate engineers who have undertaken intensive training in the manufacture and repair of complex oil and gas equipment are working at its Onne facility in Rivers State.
The 14 join the 15 who had been earlier trained in the United Kingdom, United States, Brazil and in-country for GE’s $1bn manufacturing hub in Calabar, the Cross River State capital.
Explaining the reason for the investment in local talents, the Chief Operating Officer, GE Oil & Gas, Mr. Uzochi Nwagwu, said the Onne facility represented the group’s local content footprint in the oil and gas sector in terms of job creation, training and capacity building, and supplier development.
According to him, the Onne facility is responsible for Emergency Disconnect Package/Lower Riser Package refurbishment, flat pack of subsea production XTrees, subsea XT refurbishment – full strip down, survey, rebuild and FAT of XTs in country, and wellhead fabrication.
It also handles accelerated jumper fabrication, crossover module, FLIS Frame assembly and full intervention offshore with local FSEs.
The Nigerians are responsible for the fabrication of subsea wellheads and refurbishment of subsea production trees for the oil and gas industry.
One of the trainees, Marcus Kenwi, a graduate of Mechanical Engineering from the Rivers State University of Science and Technology, said he got enlisted into the programme in May 2013 and has had intensive in-house training.
According to him, when he joined GE for the training, most of the things he got exposed to were unknown to him, adding, “I feel very happy that I am part of it.”
– Punch