By John Ikani
The Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, has assured Nigerian oil and gas service companies of continued support to sustain the impressive growth in local content and to boost their production operations.
Speaking during a facility tour of the 10,000-square-metre fabrication yard of Lee Engineering and Construction Company Limited, Warri, Delta State on Friday, he recalled similar visits he had made to other service companies across the country, stating that he was highly impressed with facilities and competencies acquired in the pursuit of local content development.
Amazed at the assortment of top-grade engineering equipment and industrial machinery parts in the expansive operational base of the company along N.P.A. Expressway, he exclaimed, “Seeing is believing, I’ve come, have seen!” Commenting further, he said, “I am so impressed with your facilities.”
Engr. Ogbe congratulated Lee Engineering on its 34 years of active engagement in engineering, construction, operations, and maintenance (EPCOM) services with major oil and gas industry players, such as Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC), Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), Chevron Nigeria Limited, ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies Limited, among others, as clients.
He noted with pleasure that the company has successfully undertaken over 350 major projects in the industry and has an excellent record of “zero incident, zero downtime” in its decades of operations.
“I will collaborate with your company and ensure that jobs you can do will come here,” he declared, adding, “We are here as enablers to business [and] I will work with any company that can increase production in the country.”
He also expressed interest in the company’s solar technology, which he said would be required “to provide electricity to ICT [Information and Communication Technology] Centres” established by the NCDMB in several secondary schools across the Niger Delta and other parts of the country.
Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Lee Engineering and Construction Company, Chief (Dr.) Leemon Ikpea, thanked the Executive Secretary and his entourage for the facility visit.
He said the company, whose corporate headquarters is in Ikoyi, Lagos, was incorporated in 1991, and currently has several subsidiaries operating in Warri, Port Harcourt, as well as in Europe and the United States.
Recalling the state of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria in the early 1990s, he noted that the dominance of foreign companies and production inputs, and the attendant massive capital flight, was exceedingly disturbing and ruinous to the Nigerian economy and that Nigerian engineers in the sector like him became agitated and initiated the push for local content.
According to him, the enactment of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD] Act, 2010, marked a turning point for the industry and the nation as indigenous oil and gas companies were thus enabled to vie for and execute projects.
Arguing that “Foreign companies cannot transfer technology to us,” he said it is only indigenous companies that could and have demonstrated such potential through intensive capacity building programmes, acquisition and deployment of hi-tech operational equipment and actual execution of projects.
He drew attention to the company’s feats in industrial equipment manufacture, the over 350 projects executed by Lee Engineering thus far, including the Utorogu Gas Plant and the 150,000-barrel-per day Odidi Flow Station, and a workforce of 3,500 Nigerians to buttress his claim regarding the remarkable success achieved by indigenous companies.
According to him, “This is a sign that local content is working.” He thanked the NCDMB for living up to the billing as an enabler of businesses.
On the NCDMB team to Lee Engineering were the General Manager, Corporate Communications and Zonal Coordination, Esueme Dan Kikile, Esq., Senior Technical Assistant to the Executive Secretary, Engr. Mofe Megbele, Zonal Coordinator, Delta and Edo States, Engr. James Eyetigha, and others.
