'How to Boost Local Content in Oil Industry'
By Mike Oduniyi
The Federal Government has to also focus on problem of financing faced by indigenous operators in the oil industry if the local content policy must succeed.
Making this known, the Managing Director of Geoplex W.A. Limited, Engineer Wole Ogunsanya, said while Nigerians are not lacking in expertise, funds remained the biggest hurdle to achieving the government's target of raising local participation in the strategic sector.
Ogunsanya said Geoplex W.A. Limited, a wholly owned indigenous oilfield service company, had commenced servicing its existing contracts with some of the major oil companies.
"The company, established two years ago to take advantage of the local content policy of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) and Federal government, went through a phase of contract bidding and tendering processes, acquisition of equipment and the eventual commencement of servicing contracts won under the indigenous content policy," he said.
Geoplex is active at the high-end electric wireline logging services. The techniques involve the deployment of sophisticated downhole electronic tools into oil and gas wells to measure wellbore properties. The acquired data are of utmost importance in optimizing and sustaining production from the oil and gas wells or the field reservoir.
"Geoplex also has the capacity to deploy mechanical plug back equipment and perforation of target production zones in a well, as the company demonstrated on the recent operations for one of its clients," said Ogunsanya.
"What is unique about our company is our determination to have a truly indigenous company as envisioned by the policy makers at NNPC and the Federal Government.
To this end, he said the company had sourced funding through a Nigerian bank and acquired brand new equipment from world leading original equipment manufacturers (OEMs').
The company will wholly own the equipment in few years, whereby it will avoid borrowing the equipment from a foreign-based service company as well as avoid committing its revenue to such foreign company.
"The cost to Geoplex is initially high, but in few years we will have the financial freedom to grow our company."
The management team of Geoplex he added, comprised Nigerians with direct experience in the provision of electric wireline logging services worldwide in Africa, Europe, North America and the Middle East.
"Experienced Nigerian personnel have also been assembled and are already doing a very good job at the wellsite.
"We believe a combination of reliable and high technology equipment purchased incidentally from the same tried and tested OEMs' used by the multinational service companies and experienced, well trained Nigerian personnel and our management processes of integrating the above will allow us to continue to deliver a safe and qualitative services to our clients at a more reasonable value to all stake holders including the oil companies, NNPC, the Federal Government and our shareholders".
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