By Clara Nwachukwu
AMERICA-based, Silvetti Group has said that part of its mission to Nigeria is to train the locals on the latest technology on marine survey, which is not common in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

Speaking about the groups plan in the country, the Manager Director of Silvetti Marine Surveys Nigeria Limited, Mr. John Silvetti, told Vanguard on the sidelines of an offshore conference in Abuja that part of the plan is to make Nigeria the support base for West Africa and beyond, after the services have been fully established in-country.

Silvetti said, “As long as the drive is here, which is what I’m seeing in the Nigerian surveys, is for the engineers to be able to take this new technology with a lot of plans. They have not had the opportunity to work with a lot of technology but now that it is here, they will take it and drive it to the next level.

I really feel that once this group is established, this group will also support West Africa, and then there is a very good potential that this group will also support the Middle East in the future. It all depends on what we do here.”

Although it has taken the group about two and half years to set up in Nigeria, the Silvetti boss said the company is providing some of the latest technology in the areas of the sea survey and positioning. “There have been some advancement, and we are the only company operating this advancement in the United States and we have now brought them to Nigeria as well.”

Speaking about the potential in this specialized marine survey, he said that opportunities for development are high, as the company is about to get active, since “we are meeting with many of our oil and gas customers and agencies, showing them this technology, again this technology has its own huge advantages.”

He added that such meetings have been very educative, as “it has showed us things we have no idea about like the number of valued educated talents in Nigeria, and we have met several and some have come to meet me in the United States and asked us to get involved in doing this and I’m glad we did.”

With regard to the operating environment, Silvetti said this is both a challenge and an opportunity to open up a noveau and specialized area in offshore services, adding that rather than being scared off by the negative publicities about Nigeria, the group was attracted to come and prove the pessimists wrong.

“If you heeded to all that you hear, you will never go out of your house. Well that’s what most people do – take to their heels.

But the entire education comes from the television, and the truth is, you come out here and see what is going on and certainly there are challenges going on in Nigeria right now, and I’m sure they are going to resolve it as long as it doesn’t get to a point where it is total chaos, so I see no reason why not to participate in,” he argued.

Going forward, he said the group’s major concern for now is the offshore survey, where it wants to build local competence enough for Nigerians to take over before moving on to other services it can offer.

He added that if competition comes in down the line, it will be good for the industry, as competition heralds greater expertise and development.