Clara NWACHUKWU

Despite scoring Chevron Nigeria Limited, CNL, 80 percent in promoting local content development against industry average of 60 percent, the management of Dharmattan Nigeria Limited, still wants the multinational oil company to do more in the area of international partnerships.

Speaking more on the issue, Dharmattan’s Managing Director, Mr. Bashir Koledoye, noted that Chevron has been doing a lot regarding local content development in Nigeria. “They have a local content unit that works with local companies to encourage capacity development,” he said.

However, he argued that Chevron could do a lot more to encourage more indigenous firms by “facilitating relationships between local companies and global technology providers to further fast track the objectives of the Content Act.”

Koledoye noted that such international facilitations have become imperative as “There are still a few areas of competence of local companies that are not being explored,” even as he admitted that “Chevron also provides opportunities for technology transfer and a level playing field.”

He added that if Chevron could facilitate the foreign partnership, it will go a long way in boosting Federal Government’s objectives on local content development, as set out in the Act.

Technical support

With regard to what kind of services Dharmattan provides for Chevron, Koledoye said: “Dharmattan provides technical support services for Production (hydrocarbon) allocation using the proprietary software, drilling, and facilities engineering data management, petrophysical/reservoir simulation support among other technical services.”

He identified other services provided by Dharmattan to include the deployment of the applications across Chevron’s Nigerian locations, training of Chevron staff, and ongoing support of the users of the applications.

He added that his company “also provides onsite support, both offline and onsite, using these tools to aid Chevron’s exploration and production work.”

Expatiating further, he said that while most of these services are petroleum industry specific, as Dharmattan had also worked for most operating IOCs, while others are Chevron specific, adding that such services are based on tasks carried out at Chevron’s request.

He further noted that the Chevron specific services relate to proprietary software or methodologies, adding, “However, since we are involved in the service spectrum from the subsurface to the production and storage ends of the industry, all players in the industry can benefit from such services.”

With regard to industry services, he said: “We have provided an array of services including Geology and Geophysical (G&G) studies that aid oil and gas exploration, reservoir engineering services that aid field development, facilities engineering services that help to get products to storage or processing equipment, training in methods of exploration and production to develop the manpower capabilities of some companies and IT services that help to optimize the operations of exploration and production companies.  Our services have not been provided to clients only in Nigeria, but in many other African countries”

He disclosed that Dharmattan was founded by those who had worked in the Nigerian oil industry as technical staff before disengaging to set up the company. He added that “Some of those services were areas of their expertise while the competency to carry out the other services were developed working with partners.”

Selection process and competence

With regard to the selection processes for jobs execution, Koledoye insisted that this has nothing to the with Dharmattan’s foreign affiliation, saying, “Dharmattan was chosen because we had the best combination of technical capacity, experience and most competitive rate.

“We started off working with partners in the UK and have worked with partners in the USA too.  However, we were able to develop the broad competencies needed for providing the services for Chevron based on our strong staff development process.”

He further noted the training is key in the provision of services in the petroleum industry. “In the past six years, for example, we have sent geologists, petroleum engineers and computer scientists to numerous training courses in different parts of the world, including the UK, Canada, the USA and the UAE amongst others. We have also attended several human capacity development training programmes in Nigeria. One of our famous services as a company is our technical training arm, which not only provides hands-on, practical training for some of our own staff, but has trained dozens of Nigerian technical staff for other companies,” he said.

He added that the selection was done on the basis of several companies being contacted to provide particular services through a competitive bid process.

Currently, the company said it is handling for Chevron, the static modeling and reservoir simulation of Benin River field reservoirs through Facies analysis, petrophysical analysis, static modeling, and flow simulation.

With regard to funding, he said the company sources for funds on its own mainly from the different projects it handles.

Dharmattan is a leading asset evaluation and development consulting firm in Sub-Saharan Africa, which is focused on the provision of a wide range of services in the earth and mineral industry. These include resource evaluations for oil and gas tracts, oil and gas investment advisory services, oil industry technology training and facilities engineering.

The company said its mission is “to develop a local pool of oil industry consultants capable of providing world-class services delivered with efficiency and promptness.”

Services provided are in the areas of Earth Science and Petroleum Engineering with regard to petroleum exploration, field development and oil and gas production services.

Specific services are in the following areas:

Petroleum exploration – provides services supporting and promoting their search efforts for oil and gas deposits by gravity and Aeromagnetic Interpretation, Seismic Acquisition Parameter design, Seismic Survey and Processing Quality Control, Seismic Interpretation and mapping, Fault Seal Analysis. Others are Petrophysical Analysis, Resource Evaluation, Oil Technology Training, and Software sales and support.

Field Development – provides key services for the development of oil and gas fields operating in the Niger Delta in Nigeria, and other countries using Seismic Interpretation and mapping, Petrophysical Analysis, Fault Seal Analysis, 3D Static Modelling, Reservoir Simulation, Software sales and support, and Field Development Planning

Production – provides services to support and enhance the production capacities of oil and gas producing companies through Production Optimization, Completion Design, Nodal Analysis, Material Balance Analysis, and Reservoir Simulation.

Facilities Engineering – provides engineering services for the development of oil and gas fields via Engineering design and feasibility studies, Project management, Procurement, and Construction, maintenance and management.

Software Sales and Support – provides a wide range of services. It noted that “There are many software tools on the market that enable geoscientist to build approximating model of geology, however the weak point in most of these applications is the inability of the team members to establish the structural geological significance of the faults beyond simple geometric model building.”