Nigeria to float first FPSO integration facility in Africa

By Sulaimon Salau

Another landmark was yesterday heralded at the Ladol Free Zone, Lagos as the indigenous firm and the Korean engineering giant Samsung Heavy Industries Company Limited (SHI), unveiled plans to float a massive ship building yard in Nigeria.

  The multi-billion dollar facility planned to be built at Ladol base in Lagos would emerge the first Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) integration facility in Africa. The project is estimated to gulp a whooping sum of $250 million (about N37.5 Billion).

  The Vice President of Samsung (Offshore Business Development Team 2 Shipbuilding and Offshore Marketing Division), Harris Lee, during a visit to Ladol facility in Lagos yesterday said the project would be undertaken within 18 months period.

  He said the project would make Nigeria the central hub for oil and gas engineering and fabrication in Nigeria, and ultimately buoy the development of Nigerian economy.

According to him, all arrangements have been finalised with Ladol, while they are currently in talks with Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Nigerian Port Authority and other relevant agencies to sort out all legal and technical issues regarding the project.

  The project layout indicated that certain programmes involved in building FPSO would be undertaken in SHI yard in China while others would be cited in Ladol yard, Lagos.

  Lee, who said about 150,000 man hour human capital capacity would be required in the project, pledged to meet the local content, noting that it would give first consideration for Nigeria with respect to goods, services, employment and training.

 The new development is therefore, described by operators, as a giant stride for the success of the Local Content Agenda of the Federal Government.

  The Chairman of Ladol, Ladi Jadesimi said project would commence before the end of this year, as the engineering designs and details engineering including training of officials are at advanced stage.

  He said: the cost implication of the project will be about $250 million, that will be invest in the deep jetty, the massive cranes and other infrastructure required. But the revenue stream it will bring to Nigeria will be in billions of dollars while the employment opportunities abound are numerous.

 He stressed: “the importance of this project can never be exaggerated, the FPSO, which is the production platform on the offshore. Till now, this ship is built and completed in abroad and for the first time, Nigeria has decided that the next FPSO must be “integrated”, meaning that the shell of the FPSO will be built and brought to Nigeria for all other processing units and components will be fabricated locally and installed locally.”

 This according to him would significantly reduce the cost of acquiring FPSO while the capital flight will be reduced. “All the money that will be inflow through the economy, employment training, capacity building among other. All the offshore oil and gas acreages throughout the continent FPSOs, but unfortunately, there is no country in Africa that has the facility to integrate, so if we build this facility, all future FPSOs will be integrated here and all the monies, jobs and technology transfer will flow through Nigeria.”

   Apparently satisfied with the project, the officials of the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the Nigerian Port Authority (NPA) and the National Petroleum Investment and Management Services (NAPIMS) among other agencies at the forum applauded the development and pledged to support the project as may be required.

  The project would  occupy a land mass with the length of about 480 meters, specialised quay of above 30ton/m2 load bearing, draft is above 10m, and 500ton crawler crane among others.