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Oilserv boss calls for collaboration to stimulate investment in oil & gas sector

Oilserv boss calls for collaboration to stimulate investment in oil & gas sector

By Elizabeth ADENUGA

An oil and gas industry operator, Engr. Emeka Okwuosa, has called for collaboration among service firms to stimulate investment opportunities and address funding challenges in the sector.

Okwuosa, Chief Executive Officer of Oilserv Group, made the call in an exclusive interview with Energy Editors at the just concluded Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) organised by PETAN in Houston, Texas, USA.

Okwuosa said collaboration between oil and gas operators and service companies would enhance sustainable growth and economic development of the country .

According to him, the industry stands to benefit from one another through effective collaboration.

“This will ease the difficulty associated with investment and ease operators’ reliance on government funding.

“A well-designed collaboration is therefore necessary to speed up economic recovery and competitiveness in the industry.

“It is the Nigerian factor that everyone wants to do things in his own way and it is not the way to go.

“It is about understanding that the way to create value requires working together and not as an individual,” he said.

Speaking on the East-West Gas Pipeline Project being handled by Oilserve, Okwuosa said that the job would be completed by September 2019.

It would be recalled that the East-West OB3 Gas Treatment Plant (GTP) is the largest in Nigeria with a capacity of two billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (2bscf/d).

The Oilserv boss lauded the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for providing the opportunities for indigenous companies to flourish in the oil and gas industry.

On AKK project, Okwuosa said that AKK project is a very unique project, saying that “not just what it would achieve, which is to be able to move gas to northern part of Nigeria and create availability of energy to drive industries and create job opportunities”.

He said that North does not have energy, unemployment continues, security problem continues, everybody will suffer. Adding that secondly, AKK is significant because it is the first time such project of that magnitudeis being done as EPC and finance.

“It is not like the previous projects where NNPC and other IOCs award you a project and pay for it and you go ahead and execute and collect your money. We are providing
the money and to provide such amount of money, the total value of that
projects for the two lots comes to $2.8billion.

“This is not a kind of money you raise in Nigeria, you have to go and raise that capital
outside and for you to raise it, you need security. That security instrument is a process and part of it requires the federal government come in.

“For instance, if you are backing up the financing with the tariff you will rise form that pipeline, don’t forget that most of
that tariff for example will be in naira,”He added.

Okwuosa said: A financier who is overseas
doesn’t know what you are talking about in naira. So you have to provide an instrument of convertibility that has to come form the CBN guaranteed that every collection in naira will be immediately converted to dollars.

“That’s a typical instrument, these things take time to get through the government agencies. So, we are going through
that process and we are almost there. We have almost finalized the security and we have also started with the engineering. As we speak, the AKK has started, that is the point I’m making.

 

 

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