NCDMB pledges support for Kabelmetal’s venture into oil and gas

The extension of Kabelmetal Nigeria Plc’s (a Nexans affiliated company) new capacity to manufacture shipboard cables and umbilicals for the offshore market has received commendations by the Nigeria Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), as it pledged support to boost local ability in the petroleum industry.

The Board’s Executive Secretary, Simbi Wabote, expressed satisfaction over the new capacity during a facility tour of the company recently in Lagos.

He noted that many are not aware that the petroleum industry consumes a lot of cables in their business, citing that the number of cables that run through a Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) can be mind blowing.

According to him, contrary to general perception that cables are meant for building alone, a lot of it is used in the oil and gas industry to support instrumentation because all digital process have to pass through signal cables going back and forth.

Wabote said with their tenacity and foresight to look at the market opportunities in the sector, it beholds upon the board to work and encourage them in the industry so that the capacity can be domiciled in country.

He however said due to the very high capital intensive and risky nature of the industry, quality and standard, which are among the Board’s objectives won’t be compromised. “But I’m happy you participated in the Egina project, and it shows that you have met the industry standard.”

During his presentation, the Chief Executive Officer, Kabelmetal Nigeria Plc, Robert Kretschmer, said the shipboard cables is a specific design no company in the country is prepared to go into its production because of the technicalities and investments.

He said the company considered that kind of cable design during the Egina project, “so we used the time and experience of what happened on the Egina project to develop our skills and knowhow and with our detailed analysis, we are ready.”

Kretschmer explained that the logical next step to expand the company’s local content scope from making electrical quads would be to manufacture an economical scope of complete smaller sized umbilicals and flying leads.

He added that the electrical quads in the umbilicals can be manufactured at Kabelmetal in line with a detailed know-how transfer and investment plan, developed together with Nexans Norway AS (affiliate company).