Many third party studies have been done by internationally reputed organisations to compare the different sites.
FPSO integration is the second phase of the company’s strategic expansion after it built hotel, warehouse, offices, road, water treatment, underground reticulation, and basically everything available in a small town as phase one. This is in order to have a one-stop-shop in the free zone.
Managing Director of LADOL, Dr. Amy Jadesimi, told newsmen in Lagos that there are many reasons why its base is the optimal location for onshore FPSO integration in Nigeria, one of which is the proximity to the entrance to the harbor.
Also, the width of the shipping channel is another reason. “It’s a very short distance that the FPSO have to go. The shipping channel throughout the path the FPSO will take is around 500 meters wide, so there is plenty of room for the FPSO to maneuver.
“Even the location we’ve chosen to berth the FPSO is outside the shipping lane. It’s secluded but it’s still in an area easily accessible. So, the risk to the vessel is minimal,” she said.
She said what LADOL has done now is expand and create more of a one-stop-shop for all maritime and oil and gas related activities that are critical to enable the partner companies do more of their jobs in Nigeria as opposed to 10 percent local content level currently.
According to her, the 2006/07 Final installation of Agbami, which is the largest FPSO in the world was done from LADOL.
“Since that time, we have carried out many ground breaking projects mainly on the logistics side. When we expanded into rig repairs, we did with indigenous companies. Our rig repair operation was largely a Nigerian affair. We demonstrated for the first time we could do 100 percent rig repair in Nigeria.”
She said FPSO integration must be done in Nigeria as this it is what can take local content from 10 percent to 70 per cent. This, according to her, worked in Norway, Russia, Brazil and Korea. “Korea doesn’t have oil and gas yet they have heavy fabrication facility. Samsung facility in Korea has three huge dry-dock. The whole of Nigeria don’t have dry dock yet we are the largest oil and gas producers in the world.”
Integration basically means putting the module and on the hull of the FPSO. Integration has never been done in the whole of Africa onshore.
“Up until now, the most we have managed to do is do it offshore partial integration. FPSO itself is 400 meters long, 80 meters wide,” Jadesimi said.
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