NAPIMS pledges support for ongoing $3.8bn Egina FPSO project

The National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), has explained its supports for the $3.8 billion Egina project at the yard of the Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics base (LADOL), saying the company has demonstrated its competence in handling such massive project.

The project, which is being executed in collaboration with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) as technical partner while LADOL remains the local content partner, has so far, gulped over $450 million in local content imputes.

Speaking over the weekend when top management of the subsidiary of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) came on facility tour of the Egina Floating Production Storage and Offload (FPSO) integration platform, Jock James, general manager, Production Sharing Contract (PSC) of NAPIMS said that LADOL’s commitment to the project has informed why NAPIMS stood firm for the company to ensure that Samsung did not take the project outside the country.

“It was a battle well fought and what we are seeing today is a reality and a testimony of the fact that we were right considering the quality of work being done here, not to mention the fact that a large number of Nigerians are engaged here to acquire trainings and skills,” he explained.

Continuing, he said: “During our first visit here some years ago, the site we are seeing today was a virgin swamp, and all we could say then was, ‘if you agree with Samsung, this is where the fabrication yard will be sited’. Today, I am glad to note that the story is no longer that it can be done, but it is being done in Nigeria.”

While commending the efforts of LADOL, the NAPIMS boss said his agency has a mandate to support indigenous organisation, and others that have demonstrated “the can-do spirit” needed for the nation’s economic growth.

Kanayo Odoe, general manager of the Nigerian Petroleum Exchange (NIPEX) – an arm of NAPIMS, said that the success of the Egina FPSO project so far, has given Nigerians so much to look forward to in terms of positive development for an oil producing country.

“With the level of jobs being done here and jobs being created for Nigerian youths, I can tell that LADOL has created something to be proud of,” he added.

Earlier in her address, Amy Jadesimi, managing director of LADOL, expressed certainty that upon completion, the base will ensure that much needed technology transfer and skills acquisition happen in Nigeria, as well as the creation of thousands of direct and indirect jobs.

She said that LADOL is also committed to establishing a training school, scheduled to take off by December this year, for skills acquisition in the sector that would operate more like an academy where its graduates will be free to seek employment anywhere in the Nigeria.

AMAKA ANAGOR-EWUZIE