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Nigerian president opens nation's first floating flow station
AFP
PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria
Petroleumworld.com 10 13 06
Nigeria's President Olusegun Obasanjo Thursday near the southern oil city of Port Harcourt formally opened the nation's first floating flow station, built by a local firm at a cost of 3.1 million dollars.
The Mejiriser platform located in Ogbogoro community, on the outskirt of Port Harcourt, is a joint venture project between state-run Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Chevron.
The four-legged platform, looking like a bridge, with 520 metric tons topside, has a production manifold and two hydro-carbon drain vessels.
The flow station was constructed by Transcoastal WAOS, a local company offering engineering services to oil and gas industries.
"This landmark project bears testimony to the success of our Nigerian local content policy which was started at the beginning of our administration. It shows that the target of 45 percent local content by 2006 and 70 percent by 2007 will be met," Obasanjo said at the occasion.
"I commend the NNPC, Chevron and Transcoastal for this gigantic project and for showing that we can do it here in Nigeria," he said, amidst applause by local residents.
Obasanjo said that the the project will enable greater participation by Nigerians, especially in the engineering and design sector of the oil industry, and added that the government will continue to encourage local contractors and companies.
NNPC managing director Funsho Kupolokun said that the corporation would encourage local contractors to achieve their utmost.
The Nigerian governement has made available a loan of 350 million dollars, drawable as from next month, to encourage local operators to participate in the oil and gas sector.
Thursday's ceremony was marked by colourful cultural dances by several groups, schoolchildren waving national flags, drumming and display of placards commending recent federal government efforts to develop the Niger delta region.
Local communities in the region have often accused the government of neglecting the region, which produces oil that accounts for more than 95 percent of the nation's foreign exchange earnings.
Despite being home to Nigeria's huge oil and gas industry, most inhabitants of the Niger delta live on less than one dollar a day.
Unrest by local militant forces has reduced Nigeria's daily output of 2.6 million barrels by a quarter, putting strains on the world's energy market.
AFP 12 1657 GMT 10 06
Copyright ©2006 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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