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Barring any unforeseen hitch, part of the new capacity being added at the Phase 4B area of the Onne Port Complex development Area in Rivers State will be put into commercial use soon, the Managing Director of Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA), Ms. Hadiza Bala Usman has indicated.
The Managing Director dropped the hint after a tour of facilities at the Phase 4B project area which was designed to handle FPSO integration and other construction and industrial activities.
She said:“I have inspected Onne 4B and we are thinking of what we need to do within the shortest possible time to ensure that whatever government has invested in the project will be put to commercial use.”
The Managing Director said“We (Federal Government) have deployed millions of dollars to the project which is about 24 per cent completed.
“That 24 per cent completion phase needs to be used commercially while decision is taken on the steps the government will take to complete the project’’.
In his presentation to the Managing Director of NPA, Mr. Tonye Apiafi, General Manager of Deep Offshore Services Nigeria Limited, said that “Deep Offshore Services Nigeria Limited, as Concessionaire and investor, is investing over US$ 2.7 billion in Phase 4B of the Onne Port Complex’’.
He said that “the project includes the dredging and reclamation of a total of 600 HA of swampland, construction of 2000M of Jetty for Berths 12-19 and construction of over 3500M Jetty for port facilities including fabrication & construction yards. In addition, [the] Phase 4B project includes the construction of “an inner channel and turning basin for vessels, stacking areas, a 6000 cubic meters capacity water distribution system and construction of roads networks in in excess of 15,500 meters’’.
Mr Apiafi also said that “a portion of the jetty includes a 50 ton/SHLP (Super Heavy Load Platform) in preparation for fabrication, construction and FPSO integration activities’’, which is available already today.
Mr. Apiafi said that when completed, the Phase 4B project will also “provide jobs for tens of thousands of Nigerians’’.
Project Briefing documents which were shared during the NPA MD’s tour indicate that the Phase 4B project is a Public Private Partnership Project (PPP) initiative led by the Federal Government that is aimed at upgrading port facilities in the Onne Port Complex and further positioning itself as the foremost integrated logistics centre of world class standard in Nigeria.
According to a statement, the Phase 4B project will effectively double the existing land size of the Onne Port Complex and “rollout unprecedented capabilities, including new facilities to support Deep water operations”.
Concluding the tour, Mr. Apiafi stated “these [developments] are clearly to take on serious industrial engagements in the oil and gas supply chain that will transform the Onne Port Complex into Africa’s first full oil and gas industrial city and one of the strategic assets in the country which can help the country emerge as a leading oil and gas industrial nation’’.
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