Vincent Torirseju
03 August 2017, Sweetcrude, Lagos — THE Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited has commenced the training of Nigerian maritime professionals in its newly commissioned world class Maritime Centre of Excellence located at the company’s Bonny Island base, Rivers State, with a view to stopping capital flight in the sector.
Speaking to journalists on a tour of the centre, Head of the Centre, Mr. Adebisi Olowu said that the centre is NLNG’s reaction to the local content initiatives by the Federal Government, adding that the simulation equipment has been calibrated to four river channels in Nigeria.
The rivers, according to him are the Bonny river channel, the Calabar, Lagos and Warri port channels.
He stated: “Instead of going abroad for training, we can design training programmes to meet specific and operational needs locally and thereby saving monies that would have been taken abroad.
“The Maritime Centre of Excellence is also approved by the world’s biggest classification society, DNV-GL just as it presents a more structured, practical and hands-on approach “.
Besides training, Olowu also said that the centre is involved in research and consultancy which includes ship sales, cargo surveys, dive operations and emergency response, vessels and voyage optimization, vetting and compliance and proficiency assessment.