Page 8 - AfrOil Week 34 2019
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AfrOil POLICY AfrOil
“LNG2Africa has a clear objective of devel- oping small-scale LNG projects to supply gas to countries and regions with limited infrastruc- ture,” said Obiang Lima this week, when the project was announced.
Earlier this year, Obiang Lima said that the country’s government would promote the development of Noble Energy’s Alen gas and
condensate field off Bioko Island to justify construction of a mega-hub project for the Rio Muni Basin.
The scheme would be fed by production from elds in Equatorial Guinea, and later Cam- eroon. e Alen gas project was sanctioned by Noble in April and is expected to enter produc- tion in 2021.
LADOL battling lawsuits from Samsung, Africoat
NIGERIA’S campaign to increase the use of local content in oil and gas projects is su ering setbacks, as the Lagos Deep O shore Logistics Base (LADOL) is embroiled in legal battles with two key partners.
LADOL Free Zone and its management company Global Resources Management Free Zone Co. (GRMFZC) are currently ghting in court with Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI), a division of the South Korean conglomerate, and Africoat, a pipe-coating company owned by US investors.
Both companies have set up facilities within the free zone that are standing virtually idle, and their inactivity could prevent the Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) from reaching its goal of hiking local content provision to 70%, up from the current level of 28%, by 2027.
SHI led suit earlier this year a er LADOL cancelled its licence to operate within the free zone. This decision put the future of SHI- MCI, the Korean company’s joint venture with Mega-Construction and Integration FZE (MCI), LADOL’s authorised shipyard operator, in jeopardy.
SHI has challenged the cancellation. In its initial court ling, it said it had worked closely
with NCDMB to ensure full compliance with local content requirements in the fabrication of topsides for a oating production, storage and o -loading (FPSO) unit for Total’s Egina o - shore eld. e case is now being heard in the Lagos State High Court.
Africoat, meanwhile, is seeking to regain access to its pipe-coating facility within the free zone. e company has claimed in its suit that LADOL and GRMFZC are preventing its management and sta from entering the site, thereby forcing a suspension of operations. It has said it is ready and able to bring its facility back online within just a few weeks, provided that its employees are not barred from entering the area.
GRMFZC and LADOL have not o ered a full explanation of their reasons for the cancel- lation of SHI’s operating licence or the restric- tions on Africoat personnel. But these moves have had a detrimental e ect, in that LADOL has remained mostly idle since the comple- tion of the topsides for the Egina FPSO. Moses Akpan-Etukudon, a Nigerian investment advi- sor, warned in an article published by the Lead- ership newspaper that recent events could spark concern about the possibility of government interference among foreign investors.
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 34 27•August•2019
