By Clara Nwachukwu

GE Oil & Gas said it has completed the first refurbishment of subsea production trees for Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, SNEPCo at its service base in Onne, Rivers State. The feat, reputed as the first-of-its-kind to be done in Nigeria, highlights GE’s commitment to investing in Nigeria and demonstrating the high-value services offered to its customers.

GE’s Chief Operating Officer, West Africa, Mr. Uzochi Nwagwu, told journalists in Lagos at the weekend that its team of “trained Nigerian engineers successfully dis-assembled the subsea trees to component parts before repairing and rebuilding them in accordance with customer requirements.” The refurbishment programme included incoming deck-testing and an integrated performance test after refurbishment.

Nwagwu also said: “The development demonstrates GE’s commitment to localising operations in Nigeria through capacity development, technology transfer and capital investment. This is resulting in the creation of high quality employment in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.” He added that about 15 of these engineers were trained in Brazil, where GE has its Subsea tree manufacturing plant. The engineers were part of the 30 engineers and technicians recruited last year in support of the programme.

“Here, they acquired the skillsets required to support tree repair and for local assembly and testing of new equipment. Thousands of man-hours and hundreds of spare parts, procured by the local team, were used in the refurbishment of the first tree,” he disclosed.  He said further that GE recorded over 40 percent growth in the last one year, adding that more than $1.5 million was spent with Nigerian sub-suppliers supporting various parts of the work scope for each tree.

He identified other achievements resulting from the milestone to include:

• New capability established for Subsea Production Tree Refurbishment in support of our customers’ needs
• Significant milestone in the implementation and expansion of GE’s local content programme in Nigeria
• The programme increases GE investment and spending in the local economy and creates high quality employment in Nigeria

Also commenting, President/CEO, GE Nigeria, Mr. Lazarus Angbazo, said: “GE Oil & Gas is continuously seeking to increase the competitiveness of the solutions for the Nigerian oil and gas industry. The Tree Refurbishment Programme will give Nigeria-based operators the opportunity to buy locally, avoid delivery delays and save cost while supporting the growth of the industry.”

On his part, SNEPCo’s Managing Director, Mr. Tony Attah, said: “The delivery of the first fully refurbished subsea tree system in Nigeria is another example of how we can deploy partnerships to strengthen local capacity in the country’s subsea oil and gas sector.” He added: “We’re indeed pleased to be part of this pioneering effort which promises to deliver projects on time, safely and within cost estimates.”

Operating since 2002, GE’s purpose-built facility in Onne is reputed as the first quayside facility of its calibre in Nigeria, and has achieved an exceptional safety record of a 10 year operation with no loss time due to injury, LTI.