As part of it efforts to entrench local content development in its operations, Dangote Oil Refinery Company (DORC) says about 150 indigenous engineers have been trained in refinery operations in preparation for the take-off of its Refinery and Petrochemical Plant.
This is even as another set of 600 engineers are set for another training exercise before the end of April.
Mohan Kumar, the company’s Director of Human Capital Management and Project Support, stated this while presenting 22 engineers who returned from Mumbai, India at the company site at the Lekki Export Processing Zone in Lagos.
Kumar said the young engineers were trained at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd in India on how to manage the operations of the refinery, adding that the engineers gathered fundamental practical knowledge about refinery.
He said the engineers were recruited and trained to witness the building of the refinery from scratch through both practical and classroom trainings for a period of five months.
“They spent two months in classroom training and three months on the job training”, he said.
Mohan Kumar explained that the 22 engineers were trained by experts who had over 45 years experience in refinery operations, stressing that the training became imperative due to the commitment of Dangote Group to promote local content by developing indigenous capacity.
“The engineers are expected to also transfer the skills acquired to other Nigerians when the refinery takes off. They were also the last set of 150 employees trained in various areas of petroleum and petrochemical refining”, he said.
The refinery will produce 780 Kilo Tonnes Per Annum (KTPA) of Polypropylene, 500 KTPA of Polyethylene, while the fertiliser project will produce 3.0 million tonnes of urea per annum.
He explained that the refinery will also have the largest sub-sea pipeline infrastructure in the world with capacity to handle three billion cubic metres of oil annually.
Dangote Refinery is expected to save Nigeria 12 billion dollars annual import substitution and create 4,000 direct jobs, as well as reduce prices of petroleum products after completion.
Meanwhile the management of the company has agreed to select competent Nigerian vendors that will participate in the construction of the plant from the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Joint Qualification System (NOGICJQS), the database of available capacities in the oil and gas industry managed by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB).
Giuseppe Surace, Chief Operating Officer, Dangote Refinery Project, Mr. Giuseppe Surace committed to this at the technical meeting held between top officials of the company and NCDMB at the refinery project site in Lekki, Lagos State last week.
He affirmed that there were many advantages in patronizing the local market, adding, “Nigerian companies will get the first right of refusal. We will procure anything that is available in Nigeria.”
The COO confirmed there were several Nigerian Content opportunities in the company’s refinery and gas gathering projects but interested companies must submit competitive bids and have technical capabilities. He explained that the project is a private investment, hence the strategy is to get the best quality anywhere in the world at the most competitive price.
He advised local vendors to quote reasonable prices when bidding for industry projects, rather than believe that they would win jobs because of the Nigerian Content Act, irrespective of expensive quotations they submit.
He noted that Dangote Group engaged the services of some Nigerian companies on its fertilizer project which had reached an advanced stage of development and was committed to do the same on the 650,000 barrels per day refinery project, which will be completed in October 2019.
Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary, NCDMB, has promised that the Board will assist the company in the utilization of the NOGICJQS database, to ensure that it maximizes the utilization of local personnel, goods and services in the construction and operations phase of the project.
“The Nigerian Content Act applies to every player in the Nigerian oil and gas industry and not just international companies. If Nigerian companies and investors procure everything from abroad then the essence of the Act will be defeated,“he said.
Wabote maintained that slight cost differentials between Nigerian and foreign vendors should not be an excuse to export jobs, stressing that the opportunity cost of creating employment for Nigerians, developing local capacity, retaining spend in the economy and engendering a safe operating environment for companies justifies any marginal cost of execution charged by Nigerian vendors.
Olusola Bello
