The Federal Government has expressed its readiness to assist in reviving a multimillion-dollar oil fabrication yard in Lagos State stalled since 2015 after a force majeure declared by an international oil company operating in the country.
The Snake Island Fabrication Yard was being built by an indigenous company, Kaztec Engineering Limited, with Addax Petroleum Development Company as its technical partner.
The member of the board of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Senator Magnus Abe, said during an inspection tour of the yard on Saturday that an inter-ministerial committee had been established to assess the facility and recommend ways to assist in reviving it.
Abe, who is the chairman of the committee, noted that the facility was built by Kaztec Engineering in 2012 as part of contracts that were awarded to it by Addax Petroleum.
He said, “Sometime in 2015, Addax ran into some tax and audit issues with the Federal Government, and so they declared a force majeure on the contracts.
“By that time, Kaztec Engineering had already spent more than $600m – imported a lot of materials and was employing over 3,000 direct workers. But when the force majeure was declared, all those people lost their jobs.”
According to Abe, the facility was projected to save the country and also help generate income of $33bn over a 10-year period.
He said, “What has happened here is actually a national tragedy in so many ways because not only is the economy very negatively impacted, it is quite disheartening to see that there are a lot of things here that could help this company save millions of dollars that are lying waste.
“I want to thank the President for setting up this committee because it shows that he is in touch with the reality of what is happening in the economy and that he is doing everything possible to see that the Nigerian economy is not negatively impacted unduly by current happenings.”
The Director, Engineering at Kaztec Engineering Limited, Mr Mike Simpson, said the facility was being built to be the first fully-owned indigenous fabrication yard in the country.
He said the Phase 1A of the project, comprising workshops, warehouse, laydown areas, erection area and 4,000T load-out quay, had been completed.
Simpson said, “Kaztec’s future planned investment and manpower remobilisation is entirely dependent on previously committed projects being activated such as pre-fabricated Antan Facilities that could be readily adapted for use in other field developments, Ofrima/Udele Project if now applicable, and other projects that could benefit Nigeria using Nigerian contractors.”
-Punch