The Federal Government has commenced feasibility study for the construction of a shipyard in Brass Island, Bayelsa State, which would cater for the maintenance and repair services of cargo vessels, oil tankers, and LNG carriers.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre chaired the project’s kick-off meeting on Thursday and stated that it will be executed by China Harbour Engineering Company(CHEC), which had carried out similar projects across the globe as well as in Nigeria.

The feasibility study will be funded by the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) as part of its overarching mandate to domicile key oil and gas industry infrastructure and increase retention of industry spend.

The scope of the feasibility study includes geotechnical and bathymetric surveys, conducting a market study, ascertaining an optimal construction scale, developing technical proposal and construction plan and estimation of the required investment to bring the project into reality.

According to the Minister, the high traffic of vessels in and out of Nigeria provides a huge opportunity to retain substantial value in-country through the provision of dry-dock services.

He said the shipyard project would further develop and harness the nation’s position in the oil and gas value chain and linkage to other sectors of the economy.

Dwelling on the prospects of the shipyard project, Sylva hinted that the Nigeria LNG’s Train 7 project is expected to increase the company’s Liquefied Natural Gas capacity from 22MTPA to 30MTPA and induce the acquisition of additional LNG carriers to the existing ones, all of which would need maintainance and servicing.

He added that the project would also benefit from the upcoming implementation of the Africa Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) as Nigeria could serve as hub for ship-building and repairs.

He expressed confidence that the outcomes of the feasibility study and subsequent construction and operation of the shipyard will create employment opportunities and contribute to poverty reduction in line with the aspirations of President Muhammadu Buhari’s Government.

In his presentation, the Executive Secretary of NCDMB, Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote assured the Brass shipyard project and other ongoing efforts to catalyze manufacturing would help the Board achieve the target of 70 percent Nigerian Content by 2027.

He confirmed that the project was being driven by the NCDMB in conjunction with NLNG as a Capacity Development Initiative (CDI) on the back of the Train 7 Project.

He mentioned that Nigeria has a long coastline of 853 kilometers and navigable inland waterways of 3,000 kilometers, which offer immense potential for maritime sector development, stressing that Brass coastline, was very close to the Atlantic Ocean.

Wabote further explained that there”are over 20,000 ships working for the oil and gas sector in Nigerian waters and the annual spend was over $600million in the upstream sector.”

Providing more statistics, the Executive Secretary stated that the oil sector spent $3.047bn on marine vessels between year 2014-2018 and 73 percent of the total spend went to crew boats, security vessels, diving support vessels and fast supply intervention vessels. Other vessels in that category include mooring launch and shallow draft vessels, he said.

He regretted that most of the vessels that operate in the oil industry are taken to Ghana, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroun and other countries for dry docking because our local dry docks were built many years ago and no longer provide the required services.

The Executive Secretary also listed the objectives of NCDMB’s Marine Vessel Strategy to include promotion of indigenous ownership, increase participation and increase capacity of local shipyards to build, service & maintain marine vessels  of various sizes and manufacturing of vessel components and consumables in-country

Other objectives of the Marine Strategy are to give first consideration to Nigerian built or owned vessels for contract award and job offers, discourage capital flight, generate employment and increase retention of Industry spends and stimulate value creation.

The project’s schedule indicates that the site work would be executed within six months while feasibility study would be completed in four months.