The entry of the global shipbuilding giant, Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) of Korea into the Nigerian market in 2011 was seen as a turning point in the history of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria (SHIN), a shipbuilding and offshore company in Africa set up in August 2011, is a subsidiary of the leading global shipbuilding giant, reputed to be the largest shipbuilder globally and one of the “Big Three” shipbuilders in South Korea.
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The Nigeria’s oil and gas industry recorded a breakthrough when SHIN made an investment of over $300m to construct Africa’s first fabrication and integration yard for Floating Production Storage Offloading vessel (FPSO), known as SHI-MCI in Lagos to carry out the Nigeria’s first in-country fabrication and integration of process modules for the Egina FPSO.
SHI-MCI is SHIN’s majority-owned subsidiary which operates Africa’s most advanced fabrication and integration yard in Lagos. Before the establishment of the yard, all the previous FPSOs deployed in the Nigerian oil and gas sector were fabricated and integrated outside the shores of Nigeria.
This had led to loss of billions of dollars in capital flight and loss of employment opportunities as Nigerian companies and facilities were denied the opportunity to execute projects.
With its entry into the Nigerian market, Samsung Heavy Industries Nigeria Limited has since changed the game with the first ever fabrication and integration of the Egina FPSO in Nigeria.
The project provided opportunities for job creation and skills acquisition for Nigerians. It also saved Nigeria the huge capital flight as most of the jobs were domiciled in the country for local companies and facilities.
As Nigeria’s first world-class fabrication and integration yard equipped with the latest technology, tooling and production process management, SHI-MCI will continue to deliver world’s largest-scale projects and channel ‘massive revenue’ into Africa.
This state-of-the-art yard also has the strongest quay wall in Africa, stretching over 502 metres, berthing water depth of 12.5 metres. It is also the first ISO 29001 and ISO 9001 certified yard in Africa, which ensures that the highest quality of work on the continent can be completed to global standards.
SHIN’s Contributions to the Nigerian Content Development
SHIN has also set a record on Nigerian Content development with its unprecedented development of local manpower and local facilities that can execute complex projects and also compete anywhere in the world.
For the Egina project, over 2,500 Nigerians were employed directly by SHIN. This project included more than 560,000 man-hours of training provided to Nigerians who never had training in the shipbuilding or welding industries. SHIN also established a Welding Training Qualification Centre at SHI-MCI to train over 600 Nigerians, among which 104 Nigerians have received their international welding certification.
In total, over 9.7million man-hours of labor was carried out on Nigerian soil and the Egina represents an economic contribution of $1.6 billion. SHIN had indeed broken many records in the Nigerian oil and gas industry by delivering world’s biggest FPSO vessel, Egina for the first time in Nigerian History.
The successful delivery of Egina FPSO had indeed transformed Nigeria into FPSO construction hub, as attested by Engr. Simbi Wabote, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB.
SHIN’s journey in Africa doesn’t end with a single FPSO. The SHI-MCI yard in Lagos is the start of the journey in Africa, and it is a journey that will deliver jobs, opportunities and economic prosperity for the country.
In August 2021, SHIN also recorded another feat as it announced the berthing of the ‘Pacific Ruby’, an international vessel at the SHI-MCI yard in Lagos as its first project since the successful completion of the Egina project.
The SHI-MCI yard will open a gateway for Nigeria to attract international projects in the future and will prove to the world that Nigeria is not only rich in its natural resources but has also become a major construction hub for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.
Giving Back to the Society Through CCSR
SHIN recently earned ‘Award of Merit’ from the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) for being an exemplary corporation that makes submission of education taxes in Nigeria. SHIN has also maintained a track record of consistently giving back to Nigerians over the past 10 years as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
For instance, SHIN had secured 5,000 COVID-19 test kids from the South Korea Government to help the Nigerian government tackle and mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and had also made generous donations of 496 bags of rice and 12,000 reusable facemasks to Lagos, Bayelsa, Kano and Plateau States in the country to boost the fight against the pandemic.
SHIN had also been sponsoring the eye surgeries of Nigerians on a yearly basis since 2015 through the yearly Eye Camp to give free cataract surgeries to Nigerians who cannot afford the treatment.
Since it started the programme, SHIN has sponsored the eye surgeries of 572 Nigerian patients, 1,593 outpatients and has also donated glasses to 99 patients.
The company had also donated electrical equipment, clothing and other relief materials to the victims of herdsmen and Boko Haram insurgents’ attacks in Jos, Plateau State
Challenges
The past 10 years has not been a bed of roses for SHIN as the company is not insulated from the challenges in the Nigerian operating environment.
But despite the challenges facing its operations, SHIN has remained undaunted due to its faith in Nigeria and its long-term commitment to the country.
In view of the peculiar challenges facing SHIN in its operational base in Lagos, which has become protracted, the company needs urgent support from the Federal Government agencies in the area of obtaining operating licence to boost its contributions to the Nigerian economy.
A reputable and committed investor like the SHIN needs continued support from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Nigeria Export Processing Zones Authority (NEPZA), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), and Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) and other agencies of the Federal Government.
Ahmed, an investment analyst, writes from Abuja
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