Yemie Adeoye

FOLLOWING a decision by the management of Brass Liquefied Natural Gas(LNG) Company Limited to award the contract for the construction of its LNG trains in Bayelsa state, South-South Nigeria to Bechtel LNG Contractors Limited, a foreign engineering company based in the United states, Nigeria appears set to lose well over 1 million man-hours of basic engineering jobs if the contract sails through.

This would also amount to a whopping loss of about $11.2 billion as the foreign company Bechtel insists on allowing only 30 percent of a part of the project value to be handled in-country, thereby negating the basic principles of the Nigerian content Act.

A close source who spoke with Sweetcrude on the condition of anonymity stated that the management of Bechtel agreed to have a local content vehicle for which they can only allow 300,000 man-hours or 30 percent out of 1 million man-hours of work, even as it is clear that the scope of the project would very well surpass the said 1 million man-hours of work.

It was further gathered that the delegates from Bechtel who visited Nigeria recently actually confirmed to the government that the project is well over 1 million man-hours but they are not in a position to disclose further than that as they can only shed light on the one million man-hours owing to their strict contractual obligation to their partners Connoco-Phillips on the matter.

Part of their plan however includes the over-seas training of about 30 local engineers while 20 expatriate would return with them presumably to over-see their work, especially as the technology they are bringing to bear on the project has never been used in the country.

The proposed project has however come under intense criticism by industry watchers and stakeholders who asked why 20 expatriates would come to supervise 30 Engineers?

At most it should be 5 engineers to one expatriate even if they are neophytes in the Engineering profession, says an engineer in one of the oil servicing companies in Lagos.

According to him, what the company is willing to do in-country is far below the Nigerian content stipulations which insist according to the Act that 50 percent man-hours must be domiciled in-country for FEED and detailed engineering of LNG facilities.

“They said they would be purchasing manufacturing equipments in the country when they know that the technology has never been used in this country before now, so where do they expect to buy the manufacturing equipments in Nigeria? Would any right thinking business man start the sale of something which is not in use in these parts? He queried.

Another close source in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, which is a shareholder in of Brass LNG and who also pleaded anonymity confirmed that the analysis of the priced commercial value for the whole project is still on-going at the moment and that details would certainly be made public when the board of Brass LNG limited comprising ConocoPhillips, Total Eni unit Agip and NNPC meets at the end of August.

According to him most of the meetings on the project has been seriously guarded as top secret for reason unknown to some of them and when Vanguard sought to know if the project value would actually be up to the said amount, he said no one is sure of that yet but that similar projects around the world has been valued at the almost the same amount.

Bechtel said on its Web site that the contract covered the coordination of all construction work for Brass LNG, which is designed to export 10 million tonnes of frozen gas a year starting from 2012.

“It shows the investors are still committed to the project,” a senior company source said, asking not to be named. Bechtel will build the main gas units itself, and sub-contract other work, the source added.

However, The Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) has reiterated its call on international operating and service oil companies to stop relieving Nigerians of their appointments without recourse to due process.

The Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Ernest Nwapa, speaking while receiving a delegation of Jiangsu Yulong Steel Pipe Company of China at the Board’s headquarters in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on Friday, said the Board is implementing the provisions of the Nigerian Content Act to build capacity in the industry, create and retain jobs for Nigerians especially in the oil and gas industry.

He stated that recent feedback from the Board’s engagement with stakeholders, reports from staff in the operating companies and complaints from the unions in the industry indicate that operating companies have begun to take trained and experienced Nigerians off jobs and replace them with expatriates.

Nwapa stressed that any plan to relieve Nigerians of their jobs without due recourse to existing laws in the industry would be contrary to the spirit and letters of the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act.