26 October 2012, Sweetcrude, ABUJA – NIGERIA’s Bank of Industry, BOI, says it has provided a $17.8 million support to Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base, LADOL, to enable the company reposition and boost its operations.
Making this known in Abuja during a visit by the House of Representatives Committee on Industry to BOI, the bank’s general manager in charge of LADOL project, Mr. Issac Offor, said the partnership between BOI and LADOL began about four years ago.
He said the bank provided support to the oil company as part of its contributions to the effort of government in driving local content development in the oil and gas sector.
LADOL is an integrated base anchored around a quay of 1,000 metres, providing all logistical services, including stevedoring, fabrication and assembly yards, people management, catering, bunkering of fuel and water, facilities for the supply of bulk materials, helicopter base, open and closed storage facilities, sewage and waste treatment, potable water and medical services.
Offor maintained that the number of indigenous firms providing support services in the oil and gas sector was low, hence, the need to encourage the activities of LADOL.
According to him, the firm has repaid over $5 million out of the $17.8 million it borrowed from the bank, noting that so far it has not defaulted in its loan repayment obligations to the bank.
Chairman of the House Committee, Hon. Mohammed Onawo, in his response, stated that it was gratifying that the oil firm had put the loan into judicious use by expanding the scope of its operations to international standards.
