Peter Uzoho
The Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Oilserv Group, Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, has said that efforts were being put in place to ensure that the Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) ‘LOT B’ gas pipeline being handled by his company was completed by September 2019.
Okwuosa gave the assurance at a session with journalists recently, noting that the project was quite a challenging one, adding that the company had always shown commitment in the process of executing the project from the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) stages.
He disclosed that the OB3 Gas Treatment Plant (GTP) is the largest in Nigeria and by extension Africa with a capacity of two billion standard cubic feet of gas per day (2bscf/d).
Commenting on the project delay, he said that few changes in the entire design concept alongside some shortcomings led to some setbacks in the initial delivery date.
Oilserv Limited, a leading engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning company in Nigeria has been a major player in the industry since its inception in 1992 and has contributed immensely to the development of pipeline systems infrastructure in Nigeria, having executed various large and medium scale projects.
Okwuosa said: “No pipeline of this size and capacity has been built in Nigeria. You will recall that in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we had the likes of Wilbros, Mark Demon and others, that were not Nigerian pipes, even at that, if you look at all pipelineinfrastructure today, you cannot equate it with the pipelines built by Oilserv.
“Let us also put it in proper perspective that, it is not about the pipeline. We have the GTP at OBEN which is the heart of our scope. The GTP will handle two billion SCF of gas per day. This has never existed anywhere in Africa.
“You have to be there and see the massive nature of it. When you talk about building OB3, it is not just building a pipeline. Our own section would take the gas from mid-point all the way to Oben plant, including the Oben plant itself.
“We finished our own pipeline three years ago, but the treatment plant took a longer time because the location was changed from Oben North to the GTP location and that took us two years to go through the re-engineering process, getting the approval and
finance”.
He noted that at the moment, the pipeline and the GTP facilities were going through pre-commissioning, saying “we have a pipeline going to GTP- OBEN. It is a 36 line we built from OBEN to Escravos-Lagos Pipelines System (ELPS) which is OBEN North, which is a by-directional pipeline that can take gas from GTP in OBEN into Escravos- Lagos Pipelines System (ELPS) or take from ELPS into GTP”.
The Oilserv boss lauded the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for providing the opportunities for indigenous companies to flourish in the oiland gas industry.
Recently, NNPC lauded the management of Oilserv Group for its contribution towards the development of the country’s gas supply through construction of the biggest pipeline in Nigeria, the East-West Gas Pipeline Project popularly called OB3 Project
(136km x 48 inch).
