NCDMB indicts IOCs on in-country investment violation

The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Simbi Wabote, has said only Total Energies E&P Nigeria Limited has kept faith with the Nigerian oil and gas industry’s in-country investment agreement despite challenges and uncertainties in the last 10 years.

The NCDMB boss stated that other companies are still engrossed with activities outside the country when there are lots of unemployed Nigerians and fabrication yards that need to be explored.

Wabote stated this in Port-Harcourt yesterday, when he led stakeholders to perform the sail away of the IKD1 topside, which marks the completion of another jacket of the IKIKE project to enable it to tie-back to the Amenam production towards unlocking over 32,000 barrels of oil per day from the second quarter of 2022.

He said; “Like we have all witnessed, Total has kept faith with Nigeria. It is the only company that has continued with the upstream sector of the final investment decision for the past 10 years. The first was the Egina Project, which saw almost $20 billion being spent in the country. Today, we are doing this sail away as an additional module and some other fabrications that have happened in the country. Again, huge investment by Total, particularly in the areas of tie-back to existing facilities, Total has done extremely well.

“Other companies have been talking about tie-back opportunities but the discussion we have seen around them is how to do those activities outside the country when you have a lot of Nigerians unemployed, a lot of fabrication yards currently without a job.

“Today, Nigeria has a capacity of almost 15,000 metric tonnes fabrication capacity courtesy of Total establishing most of those yards.”

TotalEnergies Nigeria Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mike Sangster, noted that the Ikike Field Development Project came on the heels of the Egina Project, which has shown the further commitment of the firm to Nigeria and the growth of the oil and gas sector.

He noted that the Ikike Project has contributed immensely to the Nigerian content development initiatives of TotalEnergies in Nigeria.
He said the construction of jackets, modules, topsides; risers in Nigerian yards, offshore campaign with vessels domiciled in Nigeria and drilling with Nigerian companies have boosted local employment with about 3000 jobs direct and indirect.

Ikike Project Manager, Modestus Nwosu noted that with the IKD1 Topside delivery, the project, a joint venture between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) (60%) and TotalEnergies (40%), is 74% completed.

Similarly, Managing Director, Saipem Nigeria Limited, Walter Peviani, which locally fabricated the IKD1 Topside at its Port Harcourt yard in collaboration with local firms, IGPES, and other subcontractors, thanked TotalEnergies for believing in their capacity to deliver on time without Lost Time Injury (LTI) or incident amidst industry challenges including Covid-19.