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NPA approves N57bn Egina vessel development project

By on October 17, 2013

The stage appears set for the development of a $350m (about N57bn) Egina vessel platform integration in Lagos following the final approval of the project by the Nigerian Ports Authority.

The project, which is being handled as a joint venture with Korea-based Samsung Heavy Industries and an indigenous organisation, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics service provider, is for the integration of a fabrication production storage and off-take vessel, otherwise known as FPSO platform.

A statement on Tuesday quoted the Managing Director of LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, as saying the NPA planning approval for the FPSO Quay for integration dated October 8, 2013, was the latest of the series of approvals from the authority.

The NPA, she said, had earlier granted an approval for the detailed design; the FPSO fabrication yard in August.

She said the organisation had to sign 19 separate agreements with Samsung over three years with the active involvement of seven separate Nigerian and international lawyers, financial advisors and consultants.

“Our total investment in FPSO facility at LADOL to date is $102.5m. This does not bother us as the only 100 per cent Nigerian logistics-based owner in Nigeria and the only one to develop a facility from a zero value Greenfield NPA site into a $500m world-class base,” she said.

She said the project would turn around the fortunes of the maritime industry as well the nation’s economy with its multiplier effects on other sectors.

The whole drive for the project, she stressed, was the employment of many Nigerians.

“The facility we are building now will create a market for other businesses such as the steel production market,” she stated.

Specifically, she said it had the tendency of creating five million jobs within the industry and another 50 million employment opportunities outside the sector.

Jadesimi said the company had established a training centre to prepare the personnel needed for the FPSO project and other related maritime activities, adding, “We already have junior and senior engineers.”

A moderately furnished hostel consisting four blocks of 96 rooms has been constructed at the Lagos site of the FPSO project.

Jadesimi, who led journalists on a facility tour of the fabrication site at LADOL base in Lagos, noted that the choice of the organisation for the unique project was informed by its track record of servicing major oil and gas companies’ logistics requirements, one of which was the final integration of the famous Agbami Oil Field facility.

According to her, series of findings and vessel simulation carried out along the Apapa ports coastline have revealed that apart from being the only fully indigenous-owned body of its kind in the country, LADOL base is the most ideal site in Nigeria for berthing a vessel the size of an FPSO.

She said LADOL, an International Ships and Ports Security certified facility, had the support of all relevant government agencies for the project, adding that they were permanently present in the zone.

Jadesimi gave the agencies as the Nigerian Export and Processing Zones Authority, Nigeria Customs Service, Nigeria Immigration Service and the NPA.

“LADOL is already servicing oil and gas majors, contractors and service companies. The largest FPSO in Nigeria – Agbami – was supported by and from LADOL,” she said.

Jadesimi said following the success recorded in the first phase of the company’s development, LADOL was now expanding its facilities and business model into Bayelsa State as well as extending its facility in Lagos.

[Punch]