The Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics Base, LADOL, says it is now focused on working with the government and the private sector companies in Nigeria to create more jobs after handling the integration work on the multi-dollar Egina Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) vessel.

It is also working toward the creation of an enabling environment for policies that will ensure that Nigerians, who worked on the integration of the Egina FPSO at its yard at the Lagos Free Trade Zone, remain employed and that thousands more are employed in future projects.

Managing Director of the company, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, revealed this in her comments following the successful completion and departure of the fully integrated Egina FPSO from the LADOL yard.

Boasting a purpose-built, state-of-the-art logistics and engineering base, LADOL was selected by Total and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) as the local content partner for Samsung Heavy Industries for the Egina FPSO project.

Under the arrangement, LADOL was to make available its facilities for the integration of the topsides of the FPSO after its fabrication by Samsung at its yard in Geoje, South Korea. And with the completion of the fabrication work, the vessel sailed away from that country in October last year, arriving the LADOL yard at the Lagos Free Trade Zone, owned by LADOL, amid splendour on January 24, this year.

An elated Dr. Amy Jadesimi, LADOL’s managing director, had said in a post on that occasion: “The Egina FPSO has arrived, marking a historic milestone for our facility and for industrialisation in Nigeria. The FPSO fabrication and integration at LADOL is a major achievement for local content and a step towards creating thousands of direct and indirect new jobs in the country”.

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) managing director, Mrs. Hadiza Bala Usman, joined onsite at the LADOL Free Zone to celebrate the arrival of the vessel, observing that the successful berthing of he vessel “is as a result of operational efficiency and very robust synergy between the NPA and LADOL”.

Vice-President Yemi Osibanjo, during the occasion of a presidential working visit to LADOL Offshore facility to see the vessel, appreciated the facilities and operations at LADOL. He stated that the successful anchor of the Egina FPSO “is not just a celebration of local content across board, but, also a resounding testimonial of the success of the ease of doing business”.

“Excellent work has been done here and this would be sacrosanct to the Economic Recovery and Growth Plan of government in the long run as would be evident in the nation’s Gross Domestic Product in no distant time,” he added.

Other stakeholders who appreciated the LADOL facilities and operations during the visit included Minister of State for Industry, Trade and Investment, Hajiya Aisha Abubakar; Deputy Managing Director, Deepwater Total, Engr. Ahmadu-Kida Musa who represented the Managing Director Total Upstream, Mr. Nicholas Terraz; and Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Management Board, Engr. Simbi Wabote.

So, the task of integrating the topsides of the FPSO began. And LADOL made a huge success of the opportunity. In all, six modules fabricated in-country were integrated, with about 21400 pre-commissioning tasks performed.

LADOL completed the work on time and on budget, demonstrating to the world that the most complex and challenging industrial projects in the world can be completed in Nigeria. The next step is for LADOL to work towards ensuring that the 50,000 new jobs which can be created due to the LADOL facilities are created.

In-country integration of the FPSO and fabrication of six modules of the vessel created 5,000 direct jobs and 5,000 indirect jobs. Increased domiciliation of future FPSO projects through the fabrication of more modules is expected to create additional jobs, estimated to reach 30,000.

The importance of the Egina project to the Nigerian economy cannot be over-emphasised: It is expected to add 200,000 barrels to Nigeria’s daily crude oil production. Egina will also contribute to the Federal Government’s commitment to address production decline and shore up national revenue.

The Egina FPSO, having undergone a successful integration at the LADOL yard, left the facility at 05:00am on Sunday, August 26, 2018 for onward journey to the Egina field offshore Nigeria, where it will produce and add to Nigeria’s daily crude oil output.

“We thank His Excellency President Buhari and his administration for doing away with the monopoly and putting in place an ease of business regimen that has ensured the successful execution and completion of this project.

“At 0500 am NPA tugs masterfully took the largest FPSO in the world out of LADOL Free Zone in Lagos Harbour to the open sea. Thank you to NPA and NEPZA for working together with us and taking giant strides forward, making Nigeria the West African Maritime and Industrial Hub,” Dr. Jadesimi said in a statement. 

The launch of the vessel was witnessed by the Managing Director of Total, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, the Deputy Managing Director of Total, Ahmadu-Kida Musa and the Managing Director of LADOL, Dr. Jadesimi, who all arrived LADOL Free Zone at 4:30am.

Key representatives from government agencies that have been instrumental in the completion of the the vessel at LADOL, including the NPA, Nigeria Export and Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Nigerian Customs Services and Nigerian Immigration Services were also present.

It has been observed that this achievement will have its biggest impact on the industrialisation of Nigeria – particular in non-petroleum sectors.

With a multiplier effect of 10 to 1 on job creation, 90% of these jobs will be created outside LADOL in companies and yards across Nigeria. At least half the jobs will be created in Micro-Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs).