BSMEC Consortium emerges lead investor in $1.5bn Badagry dry-port project

Badagry Ship Repair Marine Engineer- ing Consortium (BSMEC) has been appointed as the lead inves- tor to ensure the successful completion of the $1.5 bil- lion dockyard project, which is being facilitated by Nigeria LNG Limited (NLNG).

The BSMEC Consortium comprises of Sifax Logistics and Marine Services Lim- ited; SIVC Infrastructure; DMCC (Sahara Group Lim- ited); Japaul Oil and Mari- time Services plc; Energy Nature Limited, and GMT Energy Services Limited.

Also, two Korean ship- builders, Samsung Heavy In- dustries (SHI) and Hyundai Heavy Industries (HHI) have been appointed as the finan- cial and technical partners for the project, while Africa Finance Corporation (AFC) will be providing financial consultancy and support.

The appointment of lead investor follows the success- ful conclusion of the feasibil- ity studies by Royal Haskon- ing DHV, an international engineering and project management consultancy.

The feasibility studies were carried out on Badagry, Le- kki FTZ, LADOL Island, Ogogoro Island, Olokola FTZ, Onne, Bonny — before Badagry was identified as the most suitable location for the dockyard due to wa- ter depth and proximity to both the international air- port and the active offshore and onshore West African oil and gas hub.

It is expected after com- pletion that the dockyard will cater for the mainte- nance of all sizes of ships (oil carriers VLCCs, gas carriers, etc) as well as rigs to inter- national standard, and will revolutionise the maritime industry in Nigeria and the African continent.

Speaking in Abuja recent- ly during a courtesy visit by a delegation from the consor- tium to NLNG, Taiwo Afolabi, chairman of the consortium, said BSMEC was committed to the ship dockyard project, which not only aimed at delivering quality services, but also increasing Nigerian content development in the oil and gas sector.

“NLNG, as a pioneer promoter of the Nigerian Content Development re- mains an inspiration for Nigerian organisations and a testimony of what is truly achievable by Nigerians through vision, patriotic commitment, discipline, shared values and proactive community development. Its organisational structure and processes are worthy of emulation as the fourth larg- est LNG plant in the world,” Afolabi said.

Responding, Babs Omo- towa, managing director/ CEO, NLNG, said the com- pletion of the dockyard, which is expected to com- mence services by 2020, will be a strategic achievement for Nigeria.

“This will generate mil- lions of dollars for the Nige- rian economy and also put an end to capital flight of exporting jobs abroad. We have already started reaping low hanging fruits from this project, with over 600 Nige- rians being trained in ship building and design at SHI and HHI shipyards in South Korea. It has also boosted export of Nigerian products being used for building four ships for NLNG,” he said.