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Ejiofor Alike
Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), Schlumberger,
Globestar, Atlantic Aviation and 19 other enterprises operating within the
Snake Island Integrated Free Zone (SIIFZ) in Lagos have made a total investment
of about $1billion in the zone.
Speaking
during the weekend when the Minister for Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr.
Olusegun Aganga visited the Snake Island facilities of Nigerdock, the Chairman
of Jagal Group, owners of Nigerdock, Mr. Anwar Jarmakani stated that in the
last three years, SIIFZ has attracted direct investment to the tune of over
$230million.
Jarmakani
noted that Nigerdock has commenced discussions with eleven other entities that
plan to come into the zone, adding that these entities possess the latest
state-of-the-art technologies, with expertise in various aspects of integrated
deepwater oil and gas services.
He said
SIIFZ was primarily promoted as an integrated deepwater oil and gas service and
support location capable of attracting and combining the engineering and
component manufacturers, as well as service companies, into one interconnected
environment.
“The aim
is to bring together in one location, a myriad of facilities and companies that
can help achieve the vision of increasing Nigerian content in the oil and gas
sector. A further goal of SIIFZ is to serve as a major hub for improving
capacity and capabilities within the country to world class standards. The
ultimate vision which is what is captured in our DISC concept is to establish
global competitiveness and ensure that Nigeria becomes a major source of supply
across West Africa,” he explained.
He stated that despite daunting and enormous challenges, SIIFZ
is consistently achieving its goals.
According to him, SIIFZ has developed a world class shipyard and for the first
time attracted non-Nigerian vessels into its quays for services including
carrying out technical repairs and maintenance works not previously done in
Nigeria.
Jarmakani
said the zone had also built highly complex and technical components for deepwater
field developments, including four largest deepwater SPM Buoys for Shell’s
Bonga, Chevron’s Agbami, ExxonMobil’s Erha and Total’s Akpo.
The
Nigerdock boss also disclosed that SIIFZ is the foremost manufacturer of
Pressure Vessels in Africa, and the only company in West Africa to be awarded
the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) U & R Stamp of
Certification;
The integrated zone, according to him, has also developed the
largest specialised training school with the highest level of certification in
the industry providing training courses to NNPC, Mobil, Shell and others.
“All of our training is to world class standards in an effort to build much
needed capacity in the country. We have trained to certification not less than
1,460 Nigerians. This is verifiable. This is aside from those who have gained
hands on experience as a result of being exposed to the latest state of the art
technologies in the ordinary course of their employment within the Free Zone,”
he added.
Credit : THISDAY NEWS
