Indigenous oil service companies are now building new capacities and strengthening technical competences following federal governments launch of the Nigerian Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, the chairman and group Chief executive officer, Oilserv Group, Engr. Emeka Okwuosa, has said.
Okwuosa said local firms are profoundly working closely with investors and government to ensure the success of the initiative to derive more revenue for the federation account and end the pollution of the environment.
Speaking after being conferred with CON by the president, Muhammadu Buhari, he said, the honour comes with more expectations having been recognised for his enormous contributions in enlarging the economy through delivery of critical infrastructural projects.
Okwuosa further added that Oilserve has been a critical partner in the construction of the 40-inch x 614km Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) Gas Pipeline project.
He said, the completion the project will provide gas for generation of power and feedstock for gas-based industries, and also facilitate the revival of declining industries and the development of new ones along transit towns in Kogi State, Abuja (FCT), Niger State, Kaduna State and Kano State.
He said, “Oilserve has achieved a lot in the country over the past 25 year of its operations. The reason is that we deploy experienced folks and determination to make impressions first in the oil and gas industry and then in other sectors are areas of the entire country.
“Yes, we have been involved in many projects; and we have been able to deliver many difficult projects: difficult in technical, difficult in environment and difficult sometimes because of the politics of what we do as human beings and organisations, and also difficult due to issues of security.”
Due to government’s local content initiative, he said, Oilserv has built several pipelines in difficult terrains: some on land, some in swamps and some on mountains and some across rivers and expressed delight that a Nigerian company can develop the necessary skill sets and capacity that would enable development of oil and gas facilities of world class standards.
Speaking further, he said, “Opportunities will always be there as we move forward, because the economy will continue to grow. And as we grow the economy, the principal factors of economic activity will emerge. And in Nigeria today and most parts of the world, what is predominant in the energy field is gas. Of course, oil remains important and will continue to generate its own values. I am sure that you that as of today that the bulk of foreign exchange and revenues that drive the Nigerian economy comes from oil and gas.”
Speaking on gas initiatives, Okwuosa said gas is such an inventory riser that for you to produce, distribute and utilise gas you have to deliberately engineer and build the right infrastructure. You cannot store away gas the way we do oil.
“You have to build infrastructure that would match production with transportation and utilisation. That is why you have pipelines; that is why you have LNG and CNG technologies for virtual transportation of gas. These take gas to utilisation.”
He however, lamented bottlenecks in the utilisation of gas energy in Nigeria which he said has to do with dearth of pipelines infrastructure to distribute and of course the LNG for international sales and delivery.
He said, however, that the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline is actually one of the two major international pipelines that are being envisaged, adding that, the pipeline is the one that will take off from Kano and go through Niger Republic and Algeria and end up in Europe.
“The project that is actually hot now and is on board in terms of process is the Nigeria-Morocco which will run offshore West Africa to North Africa and will go all the way from Niger Delta to offshore Lagos.
“It will then go through all the countries on the coast of West Africa until it gets to Mauritania. And then it goes on land from the back of Mauritania to Morocco where it crosses the channel until it gets to Spain,” he stressed.
