Scouting good hands for fresh oil & gas deep water projects: NCDMB visits Tarkwa Bay beach to meet the links
NCDMB’s critical mandate and activities work hand-in-hand with actualising President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic agenda, particularly in catalysing new oil and gas projects, job creation, and economic revitalisation.
It first happened with a visit to its Lagos liaison office on Friday, 31 January 2025, when the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) received a delegation from the Korean company Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHIN) seeking to engage with it for a piece of the several oil and gas industry projects going on in the country. Now, it has been 17 days, which means the agency’s turn to return the courtesy.
The Executive Secretary of the Board, Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, led the return leg yesterday, but it wasn’t just to SHIN, but also to Africoat Nigeria Limited, both situated at the Tarkwa Bay beach in Lagos.
Having reached his destination as promised in January, what message was the NCDMB attempting this time?
The first was to emphasise the Executive Secretary’s determination to pinpoint all the existing oil and gas facilities in the country, rate their readiness, and devise a mechanism that ensures their participation in ongoing and upcoming major oil industry projects.
These projects include the Ubeta gas development, currently being developed by TotalEnergies, and the Bonga North deepwater.
Visualising the Bonga project is to gaze at a product of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company Limited (SNEPCo). The final investment decision (FID) around it was announced in late December 2024.
Additionally, there is the Zabazaba deepwater project being prepared by ENI and Shell, while SNEPCo is also readying itself for the HI and HA gas projects. All these efforts aim to ensure Nigeria reaches its full potential as an energy-vibrant country.
What Engr. Felix Ogbe’s trip to the beach means
Engr. Ogbe’s trip to Tarkwa Bay underscored NCDMB’s unwavering commitment to promoting local content development in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, as outlined in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act. This mandate seeks to partner with both international oil companies (IOCs) and home-grown engineering firms led strictly by Nigerians.
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NCDMB’s critical mandate and activities work hand-in-hand with actualising President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic agenda, particularly in catalysing new oil and gas projects, job creation, and economic revitalisation.
At Samsung Heavy Industries, the Managing Director, Mr. Jin Lee, highlighted the firm’s in-country capacities, including heavy fabrication and FPSO integration quayside.
It was Mr. Lee who had the pleasure of leading the first leg visit to the Board’s liaison office last month. While the Korean had the pleasure of receiving the Executive Secretary yesterday, he reiterated the company’s experience in executing major oil and gas projects, notably the fabrication and integration of six modules for TotalEnergies’ Egina FPSO in 2018.
The Business Development Manager, SHIN, Mr. David Bruce Inglis, also said the company trains welders in different specialisations and had trained 560 welders during the execution of the Egina project, including women.
According to Mr. Inglis, the facility employed over 1,000 persons at the peak of the Egina project, but capacity has now scaled down to 131 due to a lack of projects. The company, he said, has a database of past employees and would re-engage some of them if they win a new major project.
He also hinted that the company planned to manufacture oil and gas components and equipment in Nigeria for export to other parts of the world. He confirmed that the SHIN facility had adequate installed capacity and capabilities for export, and Nigeria enjoys a vantage geographical location for such business opportunities.
Challenges and opportunities at Africoat Nigeria Limited
At Africoat, the NCDMB boss challenged the firm’s management to resolve the protracted dispute they have with their bankers, as well as their landlord, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), which stopped the plant from operating since its completion in 2017.
Engr. Ogbe suggested that a peaceful settlement would allow the plant to be rehabilitated before it could work for the industry, benefit the investors, and create jobs for the economy.
The Managing Director of Africoat, Mr. Frank Twynam, confirmed that efforts were ongoing to resolve the impasse. He noted that US$42 million was invested to develop the corrosion and concrete weight coating plant, hinting that a robust plan was already in place to restore the facility once the dispute was resolved.
Future from NCDMB’s prism
Engr. Ogbe’s visit to Tarkwa Bay signifies NCDMB’s proactive approach to bridging the gap between local content aspirations and practical, on-ground realities.
By ensuring the participation of both international and Nigerian-led firms in these projects, the NCDMB aims to create a sustainable and robust oil and gas sector that aligns with Nigeria’s economic goals.
Fostering collaborations and resolving bottlenecks is the NCDMB’s way to ensure that its initiatives continually drive innovation, enhance capacity building, and ultimately enable Nigeria to be a significant player in the global oil and gas space.
Ayodelé is a Lagos-based journalist and the Content and Editorial Coordinator at Meiza. All around the megacity, I am steering diverse lifestyle magazine audiences with ingenious hacks and insights that spur fast, informed decisions in their busy lives.
