Arco Marine and Oil Field Services Limited, a subsidiary of the Arco Group, has procured two boats specifically built to service oil firms operating in the upstream sector of the oil and gas industry.
MV Arco FCB4 and MV Arco FCB5 procured at N3 billion were commissioned for use at the Naval Dock Yard on Victoria Island in Lagos by stakeholders in the industry and officials of the company.
Chairman of Arco Group, Chief Joseph Akpieyi, in his address said the boats were built for Arco Marine at a cost of N3 billion. He explained that Local Content Act enacted in 2010 had made it possible for Arco Marine to establish a strong foothold in marine transportation and logistics in the last few years.
Akpieyi called on the Federal Government, especially the regulators that enforce the Local Content Act to maintain zero tolerance against companies that had refused to abide by the tenets of the law.
On the importance of the boats to the industry, the Managing Director of Arco Marine and Oilfield Services Limited, Mr. Yomi Jemibewon, said that the Arco FCBs are series of state of the art boats that have been designed to offer safe and secure coupling to the offshore platform installations of International Oil Companies (IOCs) active in Nigeria and the Gulf of Guinea, high speed and safe manoeuvrability between offshore platforms and the utmost in crew and passenger safety and comfort during transfer and transit.
He said: “I am pleased to announce that after a little over 23 months of commencing operations with the Arco FCBs, under the most stringent of safety and quality requirements from both industry and client, the Arco fleet of FCB’s, has recorded an outstanding safety record with zero incidents and close to 100 per cent availability. All these were achieved with 100 per cent Nigerian financing, crew, engineers and management.”
The representative of the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Luke Anele said that the corporation partners with Arco in ensuring that Arco attained its current status. Anele said that although the journey had not been easy, the company is a success.
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