We’ve capacity to provide critical piping commodities in energy sector – Chikwendu.
The Assistant General Manager, Prospects and Business Development, Nigeria Machine Tools, Ikemefula Chikwendu, has said that his company has the capacity to provide critical piping commodities spanning from bolts to valves and fittings.
Speaking on the sideline of the Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week Conference and Exhibition, Chikwendu said the company also provides anti-corrosion protective coatings for the same products in the oil and gas industry.
“We have a business which is the production of piping commodities essentially in Nigeria. We also provide customized components and manufacturing services, and we provide anti-corrosion protective coatings for the same products in the oil and gas industry.
He said, “What we are doing to boost sustainability in the oil and gas industry; we essentially are trying to cater to our operations. We have grown our capacity to be able to serve the needs of society in terms of expansion.
“We have tried to go by a system of continuous improvement that enables us to increase and improve our efficiency and effectiveness in our products and services. We are also hoping that there will be opportunities that allow us to provide these products and services to various operators in the industry in the interest of sustainable energy for the future.
“While they go into some kind of investment in technology, infrastructure, and facilities to enable them to achieve most of what has been said, we are here to support them with the critical piping commodities that they need spanning from bolts to valves and fittings which we can all see is useful.”
Chikwendu identified funding as one of the challenges confounding the sector. “Funding is a no-brainer in the manufacturing industry. It has always been a problem and will continue to remain one with the high-interest rates, and access to the fund is a challenge.
“It is a major problem facing us and we are hoping that there will come a point where incentives like waivers on import tariffs and reduced interest rates for the manufacturers will be implemented. If implemented, it will be of great help to those of us in the manufacturing industry.
“We have the problem of power. We can’t run away from that, the cost of power is so significant and when you think of how much you spend trying to get energy compared to your competitors outside the country, it almost becomes impossible to say you can produce at cheaper rates. There are other problems we are contending with within this environment.
“The power solution is an improvement to the power supply by the government, nothing short of that. Trying to give access to constant power by the various manufacturing industries is something they need. We happen to be in a place where the national gas line is not passing through our route, where our factory is located.
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“If there can be an expansion in that national gas line it will also help to extend help to various companies working in that area and enable us to get cheaper and more efficient sources of energy than stand-by generators. I think that is a solution.
“I am sincerely hoping that as we talk about the Nigerian content act and the PIA, we can be able to actualize the objectives of those two acts in the sense that companies in Nigeria don’t have to beg for jobs, don’t have to compete with those companies that are mainly trading entities, operating within the same space. We should be given some kind of preference.
We don’t have to be competing for every single job with companies that do not bring anything to the national economy.”
