West Africa’s frontline sub-sea and marine support services outfit, XPO Marine Services Limited, has expressed its readiness to play a leading role in Federal Government’s projection of growing the Nigerian maritime industry by at least five per cent, between 2018 and 2019.
The spokesperson of the outfit, Mr. Princewill Ubani, said the company was not only determined to assist the federal government in realising this projection but was also keen in recruiting and retraining Nigerians, who will be gainfully employed in its services.
Ubani said in line with the new policy, XPO Marine Services would ensure that its vessels’ crews were technically and operationally competent and that in the short term, the company would contract out vessel management to professional managers, while it would also begin to recruit and retrain experienced Nigerian crew members.
He said, “Our business strategy is predicated on becoming the leading provider of subsea and marine support services to the West African oil and gas industry. XPO Marine Services understands the trends and forces that will shape its business in the future and is moving swiftly to prepare for what is to come. In order to achieve this, it has crafted a long-term roadmap.
“Besides, we intend to focus on providing services to blue-chip oil and gas companies, and to achieve this, the company is building its competencies and processes around the key issues that influence the client/vendor selection decisions.â€
He added that the outfit would, within the next 12 months, build a comprehensive IMR support vessel fleet, so that the oil majors can find it easy to contract end-to-end operations out to it, without having to worry about managing different vendors.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency had stated in its ‘Maritime Industry Forecast’ newsletter that it was poised to ensure increase in demand for maritime services between now and 2019.
In terms of boosting its operations, being a fledgling concern in the maritime industry in Nigeria, the XPO Marine Services’ spokesman explained that the company would institute best-class operational process, and proper management of tools and techniques, to enhance process efficiency and reduce wastage in the system.
