Fenog completes offshore gas pipelines, raises hopes of improved gas supply to power stations

By Tejiri Ebikeme

An indigenous oil and gas servicing company, Fenog Nigeria Limited (FNL) has completed a 2.82-kilometre gas pipelines designed to convey gas from the fields of the Nigeria Agip Oil Company (NAOC) to the Bonny plant of the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas in Rivers State.

The project, awarded to FNL by Agip, entailed laying of 24″gas pipelines 33 metres under KwaleOb/Ob River in Delta State, spanning 2.28 kilometres. The project was the first feat by an indigenous firm in tbe country.

The project is expected to ease the distribution of gas to power generation facilities throughout the country. It was designed to transfer gas from Agip’s production fields to its Ob/Ob Gas Plant and thereafter to Bonnny and beyond.
The trunkline project was awarded to FNL in 2013 and it was completed within six weeks.

Speaking on the significance of the project while conducting journalists round the site in Kwale, the headquarters of Ndokwa West Local Government Area of the state, Fenog’s General Manager, Engineer Chukwudi Uwakwe, said no company had been able to achieve the record, adding that with the NAOC’s gas trunkline project completed, Fenog had recorded another first in the oil and gas sector.
Uwakwe said, “The significance of this project is that it is a trunkline to convey gas from Kwale flow station to Ob/Ob Gas Plant and to Bonny LNG and beyond. So it is an economic value line that Agip has put in place to ensure that gas is convened from Kwale to Ob/Ob Gas Station to LNG.

“We (Fenog) carry the flag of local content policy of the government because no company in Nigeria and even in the whole world can be able to do this kind of project for now. A 24-inch by 2.82 kilometres river crossing is a challenging work and Fenog is showing an example to all Nigerian companies that we have the capacity and we are equally encouraging them to come up and build capacity to train Nigerians because this job was done by Nigerians and it was 100 per cent done by Fenog Nigeria Limited.

“We are using this medium to tell the Federal Government to encourage local companies so that they can be able to come up with standards that can be able to promote the local content.”

Also speaking about the giant strides achieved by Fenog, its Executive Director, Mr. Matthew Tonlagha, recalled how the company used the Continuous Horizontal Directional Drilling (CHDD) for one of their on going crude oil pipeline project within the Escravos region. He further stressed that this pipeline will be the most secured pipe line in Nigeria since the company deploys CHDD technology as a strategy.

Tonlagha praised the Minister of Petroleum, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke and  managements of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for the encougament and support as well as the managements of Chevron and Agip for giving his company the opportunity to excel and display the efficacy of the HDD technology.

Specifically,  Tolangha acknowledged the support and encouragement of NAOC’s management and staff during the execution of the Kwale/ObOb River Crossing and urged other oil firms to emulate Agip by encouraging optimal participation of the local players in the oil and gas sector.

“We are appealing to the IOCs, Shell and the likes of them to encourage us because they are actually not encouraging us at all. We appreciate the action of the management of Agip for giving us the opportunity to serve and demonstrate our potentials aond implore other oil multinational companies to emulate Agip,” Tonlagha added.