The Executive General Manager, Egina Close Out/Preowei Project, Total E&P Limited, Engr. Kayode Akioye, on Monday accused insurance firms in the country of not doing enough to grow the oil and gas sector.
He urged the players in the sector to contribute their quota to the development of the oil and gas industry.
Speaking at the 2019 Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) conference in Abuja, he also urged the Federal Government to extend the National Content drive to other sectors of the economy.
He said: “Today, we have the insurance companies participating, we pay the premium to them but when it comes to making claims, they have to start running helter skelter. They need to up their game and play the role they are expected to play in the industry.”
According to him, most of the insurance firms in the country are in the habit of evading payment of indemnify get their clients when the need arises.
He said although the oil firms are, in accordance with the Nigerian Content Act, expected to patronise local firms, some of the firms are fond of shirking their contractual obligations.
Speaking further on local content, he said: “It is 15 per cent and we are doing a lot. I am sure we can do better by getting sectors of the economy to really play the game.”
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He cited the petrochemical industry and the free trade zone as examples of areas that the nation can harness more local content implementation for development.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Executive Secretary, Mr. Simbi Wabote said Uganda was in Nigeria last month to learn local content development.
He added that Senegal was also in the country on the same mission, while Nigerians were already in South Africa to teach the country the development of local content in their oil and gas industry.
He said the board is desiring to ensure that oil and gas companies projects are not delayed with the excuse of importation.
Commenting on regional cooperation, Akioye said one way of ensuring sustainability of the infrastructure for the projects is to consider entering into the African market.
He suggested that Nigeria could cooperate with other African countries, for instance, Angola.
He said since Nigeria has an Floating Production Storage Offloading (FPSO) yard, it could ask a country such as Angola which has a umbilical plant to come exchange services when the needs arise.
Akioye said: “One way we can make sure that we have sustainability of our infrastructure that are ready to do this project is to also see whether we can fall into the African market.
“For example, we have an FPSO integration yard here in Nigeria today. I don’t know how many FPSO we can turn around in a year or continuously to keep that yard occupied. But if we have understanding is cooperation with other African countries, there is the say we have an FPSO facility in Nigeria, maybe Angola, for example, they have an umbilical plant.
“Let’s go into cooperation, any FPSO you are doing in Angola, come and integrate it in Nigeria. If we have umbilical plant, we will come and do it in your umbilical plant. This way we ensure sustainability and continuous hope for our yards we sustainably grow our economy.”
