Collaboration’ll reduce cost of doing business

The Managing Director, National Engineering Technical Company (NETCO), SikyAliyu, stated that collaboration among service companies in the country will help to bring down the cost of doing business. It can reduce cost of doing business if investors start establishing companies and also will bring about employment generation.

Aliyu stated this at the recent West African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (WAIPEC), organized by Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) in Lagos. “With a population of over 170Million, there is a ready market and demand for oil products to grow our economy and better position it to be less crude-oil export dependent. For the West-African sub-region to compete favorably and overcome the negative effects of the cyclical crude oil price trends, we need to increase our refining capacities to sustain our in-country needs and then trade excess more with other West –African countries,” he said.

“This will be more cost effective than imports from Asia, Europe or America. In West Africa today, the total nameplate refining capacity stands at about 609,000 barrels a day viz- Nigeria (445,000bopd), Ivory Coast (78,000bopd), Senegal (27,000bopd), Gabon (25,000bopd), Niger (20,000bopd), Mauritania (10,000bopd) and Ghana (4,000bopd), “he stressed. As it is evident, Nigeria according to him accounts for 73 per cent of the above name-plate capacity. He The NETCO MD noted however that the nameplate capacity doesn’t not directly correlate to the efficiency of the refineries as we have had challenges in keeping our refineries running up to 50 per cent capacity efficiency. “The bane of the issue relates to Security challenges of crude supply to the refineries, running efficiency of the refineries, ready availability of spares and maintenance philosophy”.

Also speaking at the occasion, Bank Anthony Okoroafor, chairman, PETANN), said the association seeks to promote the regional oil and gas Industry, seek industry best practice, explore new technology and develop commercial opportunities for business and international investment. “WAIPEC is commissioned to serve industry as an integrated platform for business organized by the industry. We are working to promote a cost effective business platform,” he said.