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LADOL advances in $3.8b Egina FPSO vessel construction

By Sulaimon Salau
14 September 2016   |   1:27 am
The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic (LADOL) Base is blazing the trail in the quest for local capacity development in the country, as it advanced with the construction of the world-class Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.
Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman

Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman

The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistic (LADOL) Base is blazing the trail in the quest for local capacity development in the country, as it advanced with the construction of the world-class Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.

The Indigenous oil and gas logistics firm is currently working on the sections of the FPSO at its Free zone base in Apapa.The Managing Director of LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, said the yard is where the first ever locally fabricated Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) project took place.

While leading the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Hadiza Bala Usman, on tour of the yard, she said the implementation of the $3.8 billion project in-country would boost capacity and aid the national economy.,

She said: “This project is first of its kind in Africa… and sitting at an indigenous facility like LADOL, speaks volumes of our national resolve and determination to take our pride of place as the regional hub.”

According to her, the vessel with a length of 340 meters and 70 meters wide has reached an advanced stage of completion, as the entire project had already gulped about $4 billion in which LADOL had put in $500 million in local content.

“We started development in 2004, when we got the first lease from NPA, and our mission and vision has been to see a situation where Nigeria will join its foreign counterparts such as Korea, and China, in creating industrial zones that will take us to the future.

“We look forward to moving Nigeria forward along the line of other developed countries of the world, where private indigenous development is key to economic growth. It makes sense because Nigeria has a huge market for this, going by the population,” she said.

To achieve this, Jadesimi therefore appealed to the ports’ management to, not only ensure a level playing ground for all operators to coexist, but also ensure “local collaboration between private sectors and between the private sectors and public sector.

“What we are seeing in the private sector for now is the ‘zero sum game’ mainly because historically, we have had a situation whereby there is a very small market and everybody is fighting to have a 100 per cent control of the small market.

“Local collaboration is what you see in South Korea, whereby one company is supporting 100 other companies because they all know that to be able to attract the level of business that will develop the entire country; they all need to work together.”

She noted that LADOL had since keyed into this model hence it embarked on local fabrication as a way of creating jobs, and adding value to the economy. “So the idea behind LADOL is to do what has been successfully done in China-that is, to create an industrial free zone that enables us to prove to the world that you can economically support the largest project in the world such as this Egina FPSO project in Nigeria.

“Once you do that, you then have a situation where people are happy to work here, do business here all at cost saving operations because it is cheaper to have Nigerians work here than to hire foreigners.”

The NPA boss, Bala-Usman, said government is not unaware of the need to uphold local content drive in the industry, as a veritable means of mass job creation, and in the overall interest of the nation’s economy.

“We will look at all issues as relates to making Nigeria a hub. We will ensure that there is transparency and accountability in the ports’ operations system in a way that all ports related businesses will strive within the marine environment.

“We’ve visited, and I must say that I am particularly impressed at the level of investments here. I am impressed at your move to boost local content in the industry…we really need to bring in local content strongly in order to ensure employment for our people of Nigeria,” she said.

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