Royal Niger Domiciles Subsea Technology in Nigeria

Royal Niger Emerging Technologies Limited, an indigenous oil and gas service company has made significant inroad into subsea technology domiciliation in Nigeria. The company which recently provided the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB) with updates on its Nigerian Content Plan (NCP) to domicile umbilical technologies in Nigeria earlier in 2013 submitted its plans to establish facilities for the assembly, termination and testing of subsea controls and distribution equipment including subsea umbilicals.

As a result, the Board carried out a fact finding tour of Royal Niger’s facilities in Badagry, Lagos and Port Harcourt areas of operation to get clarifications from their implementation of the approved NCP as part of the audit and verification process connected to the in-country execution of the assembly and testing of Hydraulic and Electrical Flying Leads (HFLs & EFLs) for the SNEPCO Bonga South West Aparo field project.

Speaking at a presentation on updates on their plan implementation and achievements in domiciling essential subsea technology, the Managing Director, Mr. Anthony Okolo explained that based on the requirement of the NOGICD (2010) Act which stipulates 60% of the tonnage of umbilicals to be manufactured in-country, the company had dedicated itself to solving the challenges that would militate against the achievement of this laudable milestone for Nigeria.

Mr. Okolo further hinted that the stage has been set for a more expansive domiciliation of this crucial subsea technology in Nigeria which has its first phase development strategy in Port Harcourt but regretted some of the challenges to include lack of in-country manufacturing capacity for the components of the umbilical; lack of dedicated facilities for the manufacturing, assembly and testing of the umbilicals in-country; and huge investment outlay needed to domicile technology in-country, coupled with over-supply in foreign markets leading to investor apathy from foreign investors.

Earlier in his remarks, the Chairman of the company, Mr. Olu Adewunmi said that the entire investment for the first and second phases had an approval of $24million with the investment anticipated for the establishment of a subsea services facility and jetty at its Angel Park location measuring over 40,000 square metres which will form the foundations for the development of the entire Angel Park Development at Ago-Ajo Village, Badagry area in Lagos.

Also speaking, the Executive Director of the company, Mr. Ivan Paoli provided clarification on the need for domiciliation of subsea technology in Nigeria and described that umbilicals are part of the building blocks for subsea development in oil and gas industries which offers more to Nigeria in terms of sectoral linkages to the economy. Mr. Paoli stated further that domiciling this technology would limit more than $40million of capital flight per year while providing transferable skills and capacity for the aerospace, agriculture, automotive and hydraulic industries.

Since its inception as a supplier of umbilicals and controls equipment, Royal Niger Emerging Technologies Limited have supplied 1.5 kilometres of umbilicals equipment to the Ngerian oil and gas industry deep water operations, and has performed re-termination and engineering validation services to this scope for deep water operators in Nigeria. However, the Bonga contract will represent a deepening of this capacity and will provide yet another positive milestone in NCDMB’s efforts at localizing subsea technologies.