Can you give a brief overview of Oilserv and the company’s role in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria? 

We are an EPC company handling infrastructure projects from cradle to grave. Our services include concept design, front-end engineering design, detailed engineering design, through to procurement, construction, installation and commercializing. Our client base includes international oil companies such as Shell, Total, Agip, and NLNG.  We also provide vendors and contractors to NNPC and today, Oilserv is the foremost EPC company for pipelines and facilities for NNPC. We have also served some downstream players. For example, we built and commissioned the single longest pipeline, a 128 km x 18 inch Gas transmission system for Oando Gas and Power.

To what extent is Nigeria’s tapping its vast gas resources?

Nigeria has enormous potential to diversify the economy away from crude oil, which has overshadowed the gas in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. The country is struggling to exploit its natural gas resources which rank among the 10 largest worldwide. The first real effort to commercialize gas was under the NLNG act. Over the years, we have seen an increasing push from government to domesticate the consumption of the country’s gas resources. The challenge is that we currently do not have the infrastructure for processing and transporting gas throughout the country. Approximately 10 years ago, the Nigerian government came up with a Gas Master Plan intended to deepen the availability of gas as a source of power for the country. One of the key components of the Master Plan is the development of strategic pipelines, which include OB3 (Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben) and AKK (Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano).

One of the objectives of the Gas Master Plan is to be able to breach resource rich areas and get the resource to a central hub where it can be dispatched to the areas where the demand is.  The OB3 pipeline is an effort to reach this objective. The pipeline is a 48-inch gas transmission system with an associated gas treatment plant which is able to handle up to 2 billion scf gas per day. Oilserv was entrusted with the responsibility to build out phase B of the OB3 pipeline system and we have already achieved mechanical completion and are currently going through pre-commissioning.  

The AKK pipeline is a 614 km transmission system. Oilserv has been chosen to execute the first segment of the pipeline, which is approximately 304 km and runs from Ajaokuta to Abudja. We are currently in the engineering phase. It speaks volumes that we, as an indigenous company, have been able to step into a space that has been predominantly multinationals.

Can you give insights into Oilserv’s performance and growth over the years?  

Oilserv started as a spare part player, carrying out emergency pipeline repairs, quickly transforming into construction and the first indigenous EPC player in the market. Our strategy is built on the back of the ability to integrate ourselves across the value chain as well as on sound investment in human capacity development.

We recognize the importance of our workforce and pride ourselves in developing human capacity. We offer a Graduate Training Scheme where students go through an intensive training program and are exposed to different areas of operations. The third element contributing to our growth is the introduction of technologies. Over the years, we have defined the basis of our work performance through deployment of technology. The traditional method of constructing pipelines involves manual welding and the time it takes to complete jobs is fairly lengthy. Oilserv is the first to introduce automatic welding systems in the country. Through the use of technologies, we are able to lay pipelines at depths that cannot be accessed by vandals or thieves. Deploying technologies has significantly improved our lead times and efficiencies.  

What are Oilserv’s objectives moving forward?

Oilserv aims to always be innovative to deliver the best result to clients. We will continue to deploy technologies to increase efficiency and competitiveness. We are the market leader in our space of operation, and we aim to remain on this path of success and continue to grow our market share. Within the next three years, you can expect to see an Oilserv that is more diversified within the value chain than what it is today.  We are still laying the foundation for our next transition as with each signature project we have been involved in, we have been able to transform ourselves to the next level of industry capacity. We see ourselves becoming more active outside of Nigeria in the years to come.