The successful arrival of the Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel for Egina deepwater oilfield project indicates that the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) is prepared to take on greater challenges, Managing Director, Hadiza Bala Usman has said.
Usman also assured major Stakeholders and the general public of Federal Government support.
Speaking at the unveiling of the Vessel on Wednesday at LADOL Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the Lagos Harbours, Usman explained that the Federal Government would continue to provide laudable and enabling environment for the Oil and Gas activities to thrive through the Ports.
Usman said: “We promise to support the growth of trade relations by collaborative efforts with clients who aspire to land their cargoes directly at the Free Trade Zones”.
She informed the gathering that NPA would in the coming months improve in the area of capacity building and infrastructural development with a view to providing an enabling environment for an improved customer’s efficiency in all the Ports across the nation.
According to the NPA boss, realization of the FPSO project showcases the preparedness of the Authority at taking on greater challenges in the new “vista going by the availability of top graded equipment in the areas of tug boats, safe navigable channels and the availability of highly skilled personnel amidst safe and secured environment for the ease of doing business in the nation’s territorial waters”.
She reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government in the area of promoting local content policy in the country in view of the numerous benefits accruable and most especially taking control of the Oil and Gas hub in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa.
Earlier in his welcome address, the Managing Director Total Upstream Nigeria Limited, Mr. Nicholas Teraz affirmed that the arrival of EGINA was an indication of human and capacity potentials in the country with the vessel weighing over 200,000 tonnes.
According to him, the arrival of EGINA would further represent a more “improved collaboration in the area of partnership commitment trust and faith” between the Management of NPA, Total and LADOL.
Meanwhile, the Chief Operating Officer and the Base Manager of LADOL, Mr. Leyton Daniel said that the coming of FPSO EGINA has brought about limitless opportunities in a diverse range of economic activities
He added that Egina which has the capacity to last 40 years under the water, had 200 crew members on board and spent exactly three months in its voyage to Lagos from Busan, South Korea only calling at Mauritius, and Cape Town in South Africa.
