Bristow Nigeria says its $1 million investment in a gas-to-power project at its operation base at the NAF Base, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, underscores its commitment to the provision of better services for Nigeria’s offshore oil and gas industry and by so doing, strengthening the country’s economy.
This move to ensure adequate power supply for its operations at the NAF Base is part of an overall strategy for its infrastructural development and further expansion, which will make the heliport the biggest in the world on completion.
Mayowa Babatunde, business development manager, Bristow Nigeria, says that apart from the pursuit of sustainable energy sources with the gas turbine project, the offshore logistics and service provider is also aligning with the vision to focus on gas by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), which is also in line with Federal Government’s gas monetisation efforts to open up the sector for more investments.
“Running generators for our operations have become unsustainable, as we use about 600,000 litres of diesel a month, which translates to about N5 million monthly, excluding additional costs for servicing the generators,” Babatunde says.
Jagit Bains, Bristow’s base manager, highlights the company’s contribution to the nation’s economy, pointing out that about 90 percent of Nigeria’s earnings come from the oil and gas sector, and with an average 300 landings per day at NAF Base, Bristow ensures a flawless operations of most oil and gas companies as any disruption would result to Nigeria losing a lot of revenue.
According to Bains, part of the company’s effort to ensure its operations does not suffer any threat include a 350,000-litre Jet A1 depot put in place for its aviation fuel to guarantee that even in the face of scarcity, “we never shut down operations as we just have to work round the clock.”
He says that Bristow’s target is always aimed at achieving zero accidents, zero harm to people and zero harm to the environment, having recorded 1000 days operations without accident or loss time.
Dave Folorunsho, chief pilot, says about 80 percent of all the people who fly helicopters in Nigeria were trained by Bristow, which underlines its contribution in the aviation sector and the huge role it plays in the oil and gas logistics sector since oil was discovered in Oloibiri in 1957.
Folorunsho says that in the past 30 years, Bristow has trained an average of 20 persons per year at its own cost of about $200,000 per person, and this has pushed up the participation percentage of Nigerian pilots flying helicopters in the country.
Safety is the norm in the company and in line with its safety regulations, he says, as Bristow runs a periodic check on its helipad at the rigs to ensure its helicopters take off and land safely at the rigs. The company also has in place procedures that have effectively been implemented to ensure that its pilots enforce the highest standard of professionalism in their operations, he says, adding that even at utmost pressure, they put down their foot on safety first.
FRANK UZUEGBUNAM
