American energy giant, ExxonMobil has pioneered the use of made in Nigeria pipes in the oil and gas industry. The company is also set to deploy Helical Submerged Arc Welded (HSAW) pipes fabricated locally by SCC Pipe Mills for its Usari-Idoho pipeline replacement project in Akwa Ibom state.

A statement from the Media Officer of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board, Mr Obinna Ezeobi, quoted the Executive Secretary of the Board, Mr Ernest Nwapa, as making the disclosure in Yenagoa. Nwapa, who spoke at a meeting with representatives of China’s major welded line pipe maker, Jiangsu Yulong Steel Pipe, led by its Director of Sales, Mr. M. A. Abbas, described the pipe production as a feat in the implementation of local content.

He said the project was in the shallow water oil fields of ExxonMobil and that the pipes would be used to replace the 24-inch oil pipeline connecting the Usari and Idoho platforms, which has a water depth of 21m.

“This will be the first time made in Nigeria pipes are used for an oil and gas project in the country by any international or local operating company and is expected to unlock investments in pipe mills and other oil industry support facilities,” Nwapa said.
According to him, a number of investors have made plans to establish pipe mills and related facilities in Calabar, Koko and Gbaran Ubie.

However, the secretary said such investors were delaying their Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) over concerns that SCC, which had invested in a pipe mill in the country, was not being patronised by the industry.

Nwapa described the use of SCC pipes by Exxon Mobil as a breakthrough in the implementation of the Nigerian Content Act and a strong signal that government would ensure that any investment in the oil and gas industry support facilities would be protected and patronised.

He advised serious investors to accelerate their projects to take advantage of the Nigerian Gas Master Plan infrastructure project and the Calabar-AKK pipeline project, which the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation is promoting on behalf of the Federal Government.

The Usari-Idoho pipeline replacement project is being executed by Saipem Nigeria for ExxonMobil. Extensive tests were carried out on the pipes both locally and overseas to confirm that they met required technical specifications.

The secretary said that with the confirmation that the pipes met international standards, there was no reason for other operating companies in Nigeria not to source their pipes from the company and other proposed pipe mills across the country.

Nwapa said NCDMB insisted that any Nigerian pipe mill which met the project schedule of the Calabar-AKK pipeline project or any project in the oil and gas industry be used before any quantity could be imported.

Although the SCC mill has the capacity to produce 30,000 tons of pipes at a time, the only order placed in the factory since it was upgraded three years ago was 6,000 tons by Exxon Mobil in 2007.

Nwapa, however, revealed that Shell and Agip were processing orders for the supply of line pipes from the SCC mill and charged other operators to follow suit in order to encourage interested investors to make progress in their projects.

At the meeting between NCDMB and representatives of Jiangsu Yulong Steel, an agreement was reached to set up a joint NCDMB/Julong project team to work on the proposed movement of the company’s 250,000 tons longitudinal submerged arc welded pipe mill to Nigeria.

The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke, had said that a faithful implementation of the Nigerian Content Act would lead to the establishment of three to four new mills and other ancillary manufacturing plants in the next four years.

She said the Federal Government’s vision was to retain over 10 billion dollars out of an average annual Oil & Gas Industry expenditure of 20 billion dollars in the Nigerian economy compared to the current sum of less than 4 billion dollars.