Stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry witnessed the launching of two out of four fast boats commissioned by ARCO Marine for a contract sum of $36 million. Another of the boat is expected in before the end of this month while the fourth will be delivered for use next year.

The boats which were built in Australia cost as much as three million dollars. The launching of the boats on Friday in Onne Port Harcourt according oil industry operators symbolized a practical demonstration of the implementation of the local content act in the industry.

Cruising boat

The low keyed ceremony took place at Total Exploration and Producing facility at Onne Port, Rivers State. An indigenous service provider in the oil and gas sector, Arco Marine and Oilfield Services, a subsidiary of Arco Petrochemical Engineering Company Plc delivered two fast passenger boats to Total at a ceremony where industry executives spoke with one voice that the Local Content Act has begun to yield the desired results.

The Managing Director of Arco Marine and Oilfield Services Ltd, Mr. Yomi Jemibewon in his address of welcome described the supply of two of the four boats ordered from his company by Total as a milestone in the life of his company and a glaring example of what indigenous companies can do in the industry if given a chance.

He said that the event represented a significant milestone in the life of Arco Marine that commenced business in 1998 and had been supplying different brands of boats to oil majors operating in the Niger Delta. According to Mr. Jemibewon, his ompany would be offering to Total, high speed personnel carriers to be operated 100 percent by Nigerians.

For him, that was also a good stepping stone for Arco Marine. The Executive General Manager, General Services of Total Exploration and Producing Nigerian Limited, Mr. Peter Igbinovia said that Total was proud to be associated with Arco Marine on the project which he said was under the auspices of Total/NNPC Joint Venture.

“The collaboration between Total and Arco Marine on this project is a signal that the Nigerian local content policy has come to stay.” Mr. Igbinovia said. He said further that adherence to the contract terms would earn Arco Marine good reputation in the industry, adding that he had no doubt that the company would render a good account of itself.

Mr. Igbinovia said that his company had found that promoting local content in the oil and gas industry was not just a moral obligation but indeed good business too. The Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board was represented at the occasion by Mr. Joseph Olajuyigbe.

In his address, Mr. Olajuyigbe said that the Board has been serving as a major link between oil companies and Nigerian companies that would like to do business together.  The Board, he said, has also been focusing attention on a Nigerian content base in the oil and gas industry, adding that the time had come to take the Nigerian content issue beyond the fringe that it had remained for a very long time.

Mr. Olajuyigbe emphasized the point that certain services in the oil and gas industry should be domiciled in Nigeria. He said that the Board had developed fundamentals for a strong and virile indigenous participation in the industry.

He asked Arco Marine to show its effectiveness in marine services and assured his audience that the Board would continue to render support to indigenous companies to enable them to make stronger impact in the oil and gas business in the country.

Mr. Oladeji Odukoya who spoke on behalf of the National Petroleum Investment Management Services, NAPIMS observed that Arco Marine had come of age given the renewed efforts by the company to render high quality service to its clients. He said that NAPIMS would continue to support indigenous companies to play a more active role in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

According to him, such companies must show their capacity and capability to provide excellent services. The Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Engineer Augustine Oniwon was represented at the launching of the fast boats by Dr. Peter Nmadu, the Corporation’s acting Director of Corporate Services.

Dr. Nmadu said that the event deserved homage to innovation, perseverance and commitment to a higher standard of service to the industry.

In his words, “Arco Marine had learnt how to walk. Now you are running” Dr Nmadu said that his organization was impressed by the Company’s ability to carve a niche for itself, adding that the facilities it had offered to Total were world class. The role of banks in it all also came into focus at the launching of the Arco Marine boats.

Mr. Chizoba Okafor who represented GTBank that provided financial support for the project said that seeing the boats was a transformation of computer images to reality.  He said that the vision of the Managing Director of the Arco Group, Mr. Alfred Okoigun persuaded the Bank to render financial backing for the project.

In his response to comments by the various speakers, Mr. Okoigun said that the pomp and pageantry of previous commissioning of Arco Marine boats enabled the Company to create the necessary awareness that it was capable of providing excellent services in the marine aspect of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.

He observed that the occasion at Onne was to send the right signals to the players in the industry that an indigenous company like Arco Marine could team up with yet oil major, Total Exploration and Producing Company in the crucial area of marine services in the oil producing areas of the Niger Delta.

Mr. Okoigun expressed his appreciation to the Nigerian government for taking the issue of local content seriously and to NNPC and Total Joint Venture for providing an opportunity to Arco Marine to prove the point that local content was not only desirable but could indeed raise the profile of indigenous participation in the Nigerian oil and gas industry. He assured Total, “We stand for quality jobs. All our jobs in the past speak for us.”

Mr. Okoigun said that such a model was the synergy between Arco Marine and Cardinalstone that had further strengthened Arco Marine’s ability to deliver world class services in the marine sector of the oil and gas industry in Nigeria. A major highlight of the event in Onne was a short cruise on the boats by dignitaries who spoke highly about the quality of the boats. Dr. Peter Madu of NNPC later presented the keys to the boats to Mr. Peter Igbinovia of Total.

Arco Marine and Oilfield Services is an indigenous company established in 1998 to provide vessel charter, marine logistics and maritime consultancy services. It owns a fleet of multipurpose vessels comprising of high speed passenger crew change ferries, high speed offshore crew boats, specialized offshore vessels and inshore light crafts.