…To grow nation’s oil and gas reserve
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
17 November 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – As part of concerted efforts to grow local content in the Oil and Gas Industry, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Niger Dock Plc have promised to work together in the areas of engineering, procurement and construction to boost the nation’s economy.
A statement from the Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, noted that the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru made this pledge while on a working tour of the Niger Dock facility at the Snake Island Integrated Free Trade Zone in Lagos on Tuesday.
Dr. Baru stated that his visit is part of NNPC’s unflinching commitment to support the development of local content initiatives.
He said, “I am impressed with the span and state-of-the-art technology equipment that I saw. The various lay yards and workshops look good and Niger Dock Plc has promised to execute jobs in the country.”
“It is my determination that Niger Dock deserves to be preferentially encouraged to appreciate its contribution to the Government’s call for local content. We shall work assiduously towards securing jobs for the company not only to sustain their workforce but also to continue to upgrade their state-of-the-art equipment at all times,” Baru informed.
He commended the foresight of the Chairman of the company, Mr. Anwar Jarmakani, and the Managing Director, Manssour Jarmakani, for their vision in acquiring and developing snake island assuring of the readiness to always partner with them in contributing to the nation’s economy.
In his response, the Chairman of the company, Mr. Jarmakani pledged the preparedness of the company to continue to work with the NNPC and other industry players to grow capacity in-country saying that the company is well equipped to handle all types of engineering, procurement and construction work in the Oil and Gas Industry.
Meanwhile, the NNPC GMD has announced that the Corporation is set to grow the nation’s oil and gas reserves.
Dr. Baru made this assertion in Lagos while delivering a keynote address at the 34th Annual International Conference and Exhibition of the Nigerian association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) with the theme ‘Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry: Tackling Our Realities’.
He noted that NNPC would continue to ring-fence exploration budgets in both Joint Venture and Production Sharing Contract arrangements to ensure there was work for all service providers in order to provide the needed impetus to grow the nation’s oil and gas reserves.
“There is no need re-inventing the wheel. We are now progressing with the use of exploratory techniques that have worked on our neighbour’s side of the Basin to achieve similar results on our side. This will also provide a vista for NAPE and its professionals to further analyse the concept of oil generation, expulsion and entrapment in rift basins which we now know is different from the Niger Delta Basin that we are used to,” the GMD posited.
“The NNPC will aggressively pursue domestic refining to take advantage of improved refining margin during periods of low oil prices. To address the current sub-optimal performance of the domestic refineries, a new rehabilitation strategy which includes the rehabilitation of refineries, modification of the refinery business model and governance structures that tie capital investment performance to actual refinery output are being pursued,” Dr. Baru disclosed.
In terms of security challenges, the NNPC helmsman appealed to those behind indiscriminate acts of infrastructure vandalism to put an end to the despicable acts forthwith, stressing that the destruction of critical energy infrastructure is a great threat to the economy, environment and energy security.
Conferring the highest NAPE Honorary Award on the GMD, the President of the Association, Mr. Nosa Omorodion, described Dr. Baru as a thorough bred professional who has impacted the industry positively assuring of NAPE’s readiness to continue to provide professional support for the Oil and Gas Industry.