LAGOS, SEPTEMBER 7, 2016 – The Chairman of Nigerdock, Mr Anwar Jarmakani, on Wednesday urged the Management of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to safe the multi-million dollars investment of the company which was being threatened.Jarmakani, who made the plea during a courtesy visit by the new management of NPA to Nigerdock and LADOL Free Zone in Lagos, alleged that “the business is being monopolised’’.
He said Nigeria should show-case its potential in the oil and gas sector, adding that there should be consistency in government policy for the business to thrive and achieve its objectives.
“We won a logistics projects from Shell, Chevron and ExxonMobil in 2014,’’ he said
He alleged that a company competing with the firm in the sector brought a non-existing law and sabotaged the project.
He said that the sabotage brought the projects to a stand-still.
The Nigerdock chairman said that the management researched into the law and discovered that such a law was non-existent.
Jamarkani said that Nigerdock invested a lot on infrastructure, adding that the company’s facilities were in line with international standard to carry out the projects.
He said that Nigerdock’s facilities had been receiving cargoes since 1986.
Jamarkani said that the challenges the company was facing had hindered it from giving permanent employment to trained personnel.
The Managing Director, Lagos Deep Offshore Logistics (LADOL), Dr Amy Jadesinmi, said that the company had invested $4 billion since it started operations and presently working on a $500 million-dollar project top improve on infrastructure.
Jadesinmi said that the company had yet to enjoy government’s support and called for a level playing ground for all the operators in the oil and gas sector.
“We need local collaboration between public and private sectors. There is a very small market and everybody is struggling to have 100 per cent business in the global market.
“There is need for local fabrication capacity which is operated in South Korea and other developing countries,’’ she said.
Jadesinmi said this measure would pave way for a company to support 100 other companies through local collaboration.
“With the challenges we are facing, we cannot increase our Turn Around Time but if we increase the local fabrication capacity by bringing in metals for fabrication,’’ she said
Jadesinmi urged the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) to bring all the stakeholders to a round table to key into a master plan to make Nigeria a hub of West Africa.
The Managing Director of NPA, Ms Hadiza Usman, said that her management would create a level-playing field for all operators.
She said that the ports authority would look into the issue and see where the management would provide support for all oil and gas operators.
Usman said that the management of NPA appreciated the need for local content development and assured the operators that the management would in the next few months, look into the legislations mentioned by the operators.
She said that the management would find out whether there is any existing law.
Usman said that NPA would ensure proper regulation, transparency that all operators and government would appreciate and understand.
“Any monopoly which might be existing would not be acceptable,’’ she said
Usman said that NPA would confirm the status quo in oil and gas operations.
