By Nse Anthony Uko
LAGOS (Sundiata Post) – The federal government in line with its job creation strategy has said it will enter into strategic partnership with key players in the oil and gas sector to build indigenous capacities in the sector.
Government which is currently identifying with firms that are already making significant stride in that sphere said it will break existing monopoly in the industry.
Speaking during an official visit to the Snake Island Free Trade Zone belonging to Nigerdock, in Lagos, the managing director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hajia Hadiza Bala Usman, assured that government would continue to support efforts in building local capacity.
Usman informed the management of Nigerdock of government commitment to boost its firm partnership to widen indigenous capacity in Nigeria, which the company is championing.
The NPA MD stated that only a committed indigenous Company would have invested over $500million in-country.
According to her, We appreciate the need for local content development and we would push for its success in Nigeria. We will ensure enabling environment and the necessary legislation to block any form of monopoly in the logistics sub-sector.”
She stated further that “We are keen to proper regulation that will promote transparency in the sector because no monopoly will be helpful to the development of the nigerian economy. We are working to ensure there is adherence to local content policy within the environment. We will also ensure there is adherence to the employment of Nigerians within the operations.”
Responding, the Chairman of Nigerdock Plc, Mr. Anwar Jarmakani, appreciated the NPA MD for her visit and assured that his company would continue to invest to give jobs to Nigerians.
However, he urged her to use her office to ensure a level playing field for all stakeholders in the shipyard, ship-building and logistics business.
According to him, Nigeria must sell itself, we must sell what we are good at. We need consistency in government policy. We bring benefits to the nation. Since 2003, Intels have government agencies to harass us.
They have used NPA, Customs, Ministry of Transportation and other agencies to harass us. We won projects from She’ll, Chevron and Mobil. Intels sabotage the projects and killed them.
“We have sunk $500million on this Island, we are ship building business, we are into maintenance, we want to do our business in compliance with the laws of Nigeria. We will do nothing that is not in alignment with the federal government of Nigeria. We are determined to support this government because we are in serious recession.”
He argued further currently, logistics adds minimum of $2-$4 to every barrel of crude oil produced in Nigeria due to monopoly. He urged the federal government to promote competition which will further lead to improvement in the economy.
Nigerdock, a member of Jagal Energy, is the leading indigenous Nigerian energy services company with diverse but related capabilities in complex oil and gas project delivery during both the greenfield and brownfield stages of an asset lifecycle.
The range of services offered include full Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC), or stand alone engineering, procurement management, onshore and offshore fabrication, brown field modifications, fabric maintenance, asset maintenance management, ship building and repair, marine services, logistics and the associated base support services.
Nigerdock is strategically located in the Snake Island Integrated Free Zone and offers a fully integrated support service to the upstream oil and gas and broader energy sector.
