VALLOUREC ranks among the world’s leading manufacturer of tubes and joints for oil well equipment and operations. Today, it is the No. 2 producer of drill pipes worldwide.

The tubes that VALLOUREC designs and develops for the oil and gas industry are essentially seamless threaded tubes-OCTG [ oil country tubular goods ]. The tubes are made with standard threading or VAM special joints, are used in oil and gas well equipment and operations. VALLOUREC is a global specialist in products for deep, difficult, corrosive and deviated wells, particularly gas wells, which require a perfect sealing mechanism on drill pipes.

To consolidate the VALLOUREC vision, the group established a threading [VAM ONNE ] in 2009, an investment of about N4 billion. This involves an ambitious technology transfer that has seen to the training of 25 Nigerians overseas, and another 50 Nigerians on specialized plant operations and technology applications in-country.

Speaking at an event recently, VMOG’s Chairman, Charles Osezua, said “with this development, we are able to thread various sizes of oil production pipes with VAM connections, world leading premium connections. Prior to this investment, majority pipes used in the industry, were threaded outside the country”.

Now, that should bring a lot of hope to the arrow-head of Local Content, Ernest Nwapa, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development & Monitoring Board [NCDMB]. Mr. Osezua had more “ We can comfortably say that, what we have done at Onne is the first step in our investment agenda for Nigeria. The state-of-the-art production unit, is expected to engender growth, which should lead to higher business development in the country”

What VMOG is promising Nigerians, is to produce the pipes cond.ucive for the operating environment in Nigeria [ Nigeria for Nigeria ]. Presently, as attested to by Eugene Fogli, VMOG Nigeria Country Manager, “ VAM Onne has currently attained 95% local content, regarding its workforce, with a good percentage of Nigerians trained in Germany, France and the United Kingdom”.

Also speaking when he visited, Christophe Hout, GM, Sales, Europe & Africa, VALLOUREC Group, appreciated the challenges faced by the investment in Nigeria, “ the plant in Onne produces 15,000 tons of pipes annually, but, is currently running at 50% capacity daily, which is good progress”.

VAM Onne facility, even at the pace it is operating is a “big” statement on technology transfer, and can only do the Nigerian economy, a lot of good.