We’ve trained over 280 engineers on surface well testing – MD, Well Fluid Services.
The Managing Director of Well Fluid Services Limited, Martins Okoro, has said that the company has trained over 280 people on basic surface well testing in the country.
Speaking at the Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week Conference and Exhibition, Okoro said over 150 trainees of the company are working internationally, and about 50 working within the country.
According to Okoro, the company has a training facility that can be compared to facilities in Paris, Montrose, or Scotland. “We are a wholly indigenous company incorporated in 2001 and restructured in 2011 to carry out the following services: surface well testing, heli-production facilities, affiliate water treatment, and sound management on the surface.
“We have a subsidiary known as Pission Hydrocarbon that is into oil field equipment fabrication. We have a robust training school that we are using to train young engineers and those who want to do a career change. We have very lucrative training and basic surface well testing.
“We have trained over 280 people and more than 150 are working internationally, and about 50 working within the country. It can be compared to the type in Paris, Montrose, or Scotland. We have the same training facility, and we offer the same training services.
“Though we are basically upstream, we are seriously eyeing the downstream industry and are yet to venture into it.”
Okoro lamented that despite its state-of-act facility, many companies in the country still preferred to patronize multinationals.
He said, “The challenge we have is that we have some multinationals that don’t have the kind of equipment that we have in our base, but they get the jobs and then they outsource to other local companies and equipment.
“That is one challenge. The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) is trying by giving some of these jobs to us, but they still need to do more. We want more jobs because we have invested a lot in equipment that is sitting down in our base and when these equipment are on the job then we can employ more Nigerians to work for us.
“NCDMB has tried because without them we would not exist. Right from the time of President Goodluck Jonathan when this bill started, the equipment that I used in starting this company was fabricated and built by myself.
“When we finished that equipment, Total Energy was able to give us our first contract with that equipment and that is why we are still in business.
Today, 50-60 per cent of the equipment I use is designed by me and I have passed that stage because I have designed some local technologies that have been sold to companies like NPDC and they are working there.”
Okoro thanked the organizers of the conference for providing an opportunity for the company to network. “We benefited from networking. Anytime you stop exhibiting you stop breathing. This is where we network with old friends, colleagues, and even new clients.
“NOG Energy Week Conference & Exhibition is a choice way to expose ourselves and announce what we have done and what we can do. It’s a good platform for networking and showcasing your services.
Last year we used the other hall, and it was not fully occupied but today there is a spillover and that is to tell you that there is an improvement in terms of space and exhibitors.
“We have a greater number of exhibitors, so we have a greater number of visitors. You can see human traffic. I know it will come to a stage when this place will not be enough, and I wish them the best.”
