SPDC JV partners PETAN, foreign manufacturers on Nigerian content

The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has partnered the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) to boost local content development in the nation’s oil and gas sector.
 The development came as 40 engineering and geosciences graduates passed out from a one-year internship programme organised by the SPDC-operated Joint Venture and Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN), a group of indigenous oilfield service companies.
The multinational oil company said in a statement that it has also performed the ground-breaking ceremony of its Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) domestication initiative, whereby the manufacturers and their Nigerian partners have been allocated land to set up local assembly plants and service centres at the Shell Industrial Area in Port Harcourt. Three foreign equipment manufacturers and their Nigerian partners participated in the ground-breaking ceremony
 At the ceremony, Managing Director of the SPDC and Country Chair, Shell companies in Nigeria, Mr. Osagie Okunbor, described the development as a boost to the growth of local content.
 Okunbor, represented by the SPDC’s General Manager, Projects, Toyin Olagunju quipped, “I’m pleased at the successful completion of the programme by the first batch of 40 graduates who worked with 12 PETAN member companies. I’m even more pleased that as envisaged, a number of them have been employed by the partner companies and others.”
 The Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), represented by the Deputy Manager Human Capital Development, Mrs Michele Aiyegbusi, commended the SPDC JV for the internship initiative. Aiyebgusi said “What we see here today is the sort of thing that the NCDMB will want to see in the industry – the collaboration between the operators and the service providers.” The Executive Secretary informed that the NCDMB also runs an internship programme specifically in the earth sciences.