By Peter Uzoho
As part of the efforts to deepen local content in the country and conserve foreign exchange, a $10 million Threading and Valve assembly facility is being set up at the Lekki Free Trade Zone, Lagos, by Bell Oil and Gas.
The integrated facility would provide a range of piping and tubular services for the oil and gas industry. It would also have a Valve assembling plant, maintenance workshop, testing plant, a composite fabrication facility and also serve as a befitting fabrication yard in general.
The project which kicked off with the groundbreaking ceremony recently, witnessed by officials of the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), would play a very critical role by providing these services for the production of oil and gas.
Some of these services are currently imported into the country at huge cost to the economy.
Speaking at the occasion, the Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Mr. Simbi Wabote, who was represented by the Board’s Director of Content and Evaluation, Tunde Adelana, said as Nigeria celebrates her 60th year of independence, he believes that projects like this would terminate the country’s dependence on massive importation of Threaded pipes so that she can derive the attendant economic benefits.
He said the establishment of a facility that would make it possible to assemble Threaded OCTG pipes and Valves in-country was welcome, in addition to the list of existing assembly plants in the country as it is set to meet the key energy needs in the oil and gas sector.
“Nigeria deserves more of such initiatives in the oil and gas sector,” he said.
In his remarks, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Bell Oil and Gas, Mr. Kayode Thomas, said the assembly facility when completed, was expected to reduce the cost of purchasing Threaded pipes and Valves which are mostly imported into the country and create a reasonable level of employment opportunities for Nigerians.
“The essence of the event was to break the ground and lay the first stones for what is essentially going to be a state of the art multimillion-dollar integrated facility, that will provide a range of piping and tubular services for the oil and gas industry.
“It would also have a Valve assembling, maintenance workshop, testing plant, a composite fabrication facility and also serve as a befitting fabrication yard in general,” Thomas said.
He explained that in full support of the company’s vision to be a reference point in the industry as well as demonstrate its commitment to real and true local capacity development, it was moving further into the value chain ladder from being a supplier and an installer into actually doing something more enduring and adding more value to the economy
