BREAKING NEWS, Oil & Gas
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Forty engineers and geosciences graduates, taking part in the one-year training programme organised by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria in collaboration with Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, complete their course
THE development of indigenous manpower for the oil and gas industry received a boost on Friday, October 30, as 40 engineering and geosciences graduates passed out from a one-year internship programme organised by the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria, SPDC, operated Joint Venture and Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria, PETAN, a group of indigenous oilfield service companies. The milestone occurred on the same day that the SPDC JV performed the ground-breaking ceremony of its original equipment manufacturers, OEM, domestication initiative, which enabled the manufacturers and their Nigerian partners to be allocated land to set up local assembly plants and service centres at the Shell Industrial Area in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
The internship programme, introduced by the SPDC JV in 2014 to support manpower development in critical disciplines, equips graduates with vital industry experience for employment and another batch of 40 graduates who are now attached to 20 PETAN companies.
In an address at the graduation ceremony, Osagie Okunbor, managing Director of the SPDC and country chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, said he was pleased about the success of the first batch of 40 graduates who worked with 12 PETAN member companies. “I’m even more pleased that, as envisaged, a number of them have been employed by the partner companies and others,” Okunbor, who was represented by Toyin Olagunju, SPDC’s general manager on projects, said.
In his own statement, Guy Kent, senior procurement manager, Shell Upstream Nigeria said the company was committed to developing Nigerian capability because in the long run would make good business sense. “The partnership with PETAN is about giving the right people the chance to learn and actually start to contribute to the industry. It is the first rung of the ladder of development,” Kent said.
Denzil Kentebe, executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, NCDMB, represented by Michele Aiyegbusi, deputy manager human capital development, commended the SPDC JV for the initiative. Kentebe said: “What we see here today is the sort of thing that the NCDMB will want to see in the industry—the collaboration between the operators and the service providers. The NCDMB also runs an internship programme specifically in the earth sciences.”
In any case, three foreign equipment manufacturers and their Nigerian partners participated in the ground-breaking ceremony. In 2012, the SPDC entered into an agreement with the original equipment manufacturers and their Nigerian partners. Subsequently, land was allocated to them at the Shell Industrial Area in Port Harcourt. The ground-breaking ceremony marks site readiness and construction of the first three assembly and service facilities for valves, low voltage electrical panels, switch gears and instrumentation equipment.
“The ground-breaking ceremony is a significant head start towards the development of mini industrial parks,” said. Okunbor at the ceremony. “It is a major milestone in our aspiration to domesticate our sources of supply as part of our Nigerian content journey to keep them closer to our operations and benefit from the shorter supply chain.”
On his part, Kentebe, said: “The SPDC was one of the first stakeholders to obtain approved from the Board for the OEM domestication programme. The vision ties into a similar plan by NCDMB to establish industrial packs in Yenagoa, Owerri and Calabar.”
Chiedu Oba, general manager, Nigerian Content Development of the SPDC, in his remarks described the internship and the OEM domestication initiatives as a demonstration of “the long term commitment of Shell Companies in Nigeria to Nigerian content development. It is a key sourcing principle that is woven into the fabric of our business”.
— Nov 2, 2015 @ 16:30 GMT
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