A WARRI-based pipeline construction engineer, Mr. Misan Fenegbitse, has said that the insistence on the Horizontal Directional Drilling, HDD, by the Pan Ocean Oil Corporation of Nigeria for the Amukpe-Escravos Pipeline Project, AEPP, would alienate the people of the communities hosting the project from participating it.

Fenegbitse, in an interview with newsmen last week, noted that the adoption of an all-inclusive machine like the HDD is capable of killing the local content policy of the federal government as it relates to employment and wealth generation.

According to him, “I have been following the debate put forward by Pan Ocean on the use of the HDD technology for the AEPP and I see a lot of defects in that decision. In one direction, I am yet to be convinced of the necessity of HDD technology on the terrain of the AEPP.

“The Horizontal Directional Drilling machine is basically to break the barriers of environmental features like hills, rivers, or such infrastructural features like railway lines. But there are no such features along the right of way of the AEPP.

Conditions of bidding

Besides, the HDD is never part of the pre-requisites listed for the bidding of the project, and it is worrisome that Pan Ocean is now hinging the award of the work on an item that is never part of the conditions of bidding.”

In addition, he noted, “In the second vein is the fact that the HDD will succinctly remove human engagement on the project. Now, let me ask: if there are no human engagements on the project, what then happens to the local content law of the federal government? The local content law is very clear as to the need for communities hosting oil exploration activities to make economic benefits on the project.”

Continuing, Fenegbitse said, “The law preserves the right for the communities to have the first right of rejection in nominating contractors who will work on their lands, and when this is not there, the manpower that will be deployed for the project must come from the host communities. But I am surprised that none of these is taken into consideration before Pan Ocean came out with the idea of the HDD.”