BY CHIKA OKEKE, Abuja
Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has promised to priortise fabrication factories in order to provide healthy massive opportunities for them to sustain their operations.
The Director of Monitoring and Evaluation at the NCDMB, Alhalji Abdulmalik Halilu stated this on Tuesday at the Load-out ceremony of OML 100 skided ejector package, fabricated and assembled by an indigenous company, Wilkriss Nigeria Limited for residual gas recovery in Port Harcourt.
He noted that the patronage and deployment of indigenous oil and gas service companies remained strategic since the implementation of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act over the years.
Halilu was excited that companies are recording significant breakthroughs in the fabrication space.
He commended TotalEnergies and its Joint Venture (JV) partners, sponsors of the project for providing an opportunity for capacity utilisation by an indigenous company, just as he lauded Wilkriss Limited for executing top-notch project.
The director stated that the project was significant as it delivered the right quality on schedule, adding that the metric is very positive for monitoring and evaluation.
“We will be interested in all those metrics, we want to see the manhours covered and the skills developed because, some of the equipment that you didn’t have before but because of the opportunity that TotalEnergies provided, you are able to acquire them,” he said.
Halilu advised the company to update its profile on NCDMB’s Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Joint Qualification System (NOGIC-JQS) platform as soon as possible to enable them showcase the additional capacity.
He pleaded with the management of Wilkriss Limited to sustain the quality assurance as evidenced by all the ISO certifications from HSE to Environment and quality management, as the company moves to its new site.
This, he believed would be significant during technical evaluation, noting that NCDMB has conducted a baseline census in fabrication yards as seen in burst and boom era, as well as capacity utilisation.
He said though Nigeria is working assiduously to achieve the net zero carbon emission target by 2060, that the project is targeted at reducing gas flaring and decarbonisation.
“The Skided Ejector Package helps with the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas feedstock. Being able to unlock availability of feedstock is very important. It’s no point completing Train-7 of the NLNG and everybody is struggling with supply of feedstock,” he added.
Halilu urged the company to explore ways of engaging the staff who worked on such a sophisticated project in their operation in order to retain and improve on the knowledge garned so far.
He disclosed that the company must strive to build capacities as new technologies emerge.
An Executive Director of Wilkriss, Engr. Naaba Umahi thanked the NCDMB boss and the management for attending the Load-out ceremony.
He informed that the event marked a major milestone not only for the company but the industry and the country, given that a project of such magnitude could be executed in-country with a workforce that included 6-G-certified welders, which could be 100 per cent Nigerians.
Umahi, who is also a Deputy Managing Director at Wilkriss praised TotalEnergies for supporting the project, saying that both companies were able to agree on materials that could be procured locally.
On the scope of work, he pointed out that it was from steel cutting to completion, and that there was no rework at any stage, saying that functionality and pressure tests, and related activities were all handled by the company’s staff without hitches.
Umahi informed that Wilkriss faced major challenges during the review of project design, which he said, enabled their engineers to exhibit high level of excellence and improve on the processes.
He assured NCDMB that the company would strive to build capacities for new technologies on a continuous basis.
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