How Century Energy, Oilserv, others excelled in 2016

Some Nigerian oil service firms have shown proven competence and capability, despite the challenges facing the global oil industry in the past two and a half years.
In the areas of engineering, fabrication and construction; marine and subsea services; pipeline system, pipeline leak/clamping; operation and maintenance, among others, Nigerian firms such as Century Energy Services Limited, Marine Platforms Limited and Oilserv Limited have shown expertise in their respective fields.
The increasing indigenous capacity and capability has drastically reduced skills gap that hitherto existed in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry hence the increased advocacy by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board for award of more jobs/contracts to Nigerian companies with such competences.
Currently, Oilserv Limited is handling the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s (NNPC) 67 km x 48 inch gas transmission pipeline system from Delta State to Edo State. The company is also working on East-West pipeline popularly called Obiafu, Obrikom, Oben (OB3) gas pipeline, which is expected to boost domestic gas supply by two billion standard cubic feet per day (2bscf/d) on completion.
The $400 million OB3 gas pipeline project, according Oilserv Managing Director, Mr. Emeka Okwuosa, is a Federal Government’s project.
It is a 48-inch pipeline that covers about 120km and is expected to be completed in July this year.
Marine Platforms Limited offers a full spectrum of marine services through a range of marine support vessels for exploration, development and production operations. In 2016, the company fished out 10 young Nigerians and trained them in Remotely Operated Vehicles pilot technology, bringing the number of Nigerians it trained in subsea engineering to 25. Some of the Nigerians trained have taken over from expatriate workers in some of its operations.
Century Energy Services Limited (CESL) is a frontline oil service firm that immensely contributed to realisation of Aje as a field with commercial oil reserves, which also brought Lagos State into the league of oil producing states.
The Aje wells (both completed in upper and lower Cenomanian reservoirs) are subsea wells tied back to a 40,000 barrels of oil per day (bopd), 18 million standard cubic feet per day (mmscf/d) of gas, and Floating Production Storage and Offtake (FPSO) vessel – the Front Puffin FPSO.
Century Energy Services Limited, Africa’s premier Operation and Maintenance (O&M) service provider, is the operation and maintenance service provider for the Front Puffin FPSO, providing production operations management, facility maintenance and marine support for the Aje field, which is operated by Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum.
CESL has maintained an age-long working relationship with operators of the Aje field, Yinka Folawiyo Petroleum, to bring the asset from a mere concept, 20 years ago to full commercialization in May 2016. Aje field is the first oilfield outside the Niger Delta to produce commercial volumes of hydrocarbons, which has helped in no small measure to prove the prospectivity of other frontier basins in Nigeria.
It is also the first and only oilfield in Nigeria where exploration and appraisal activities have been undertaken solely by indigenous Nigerian companies without the direct involvement of an international oil company (IOC).
CESL’s had also pledged to continue to deliver cost-effective operation and maintenance services on the Aje FPSO, in addition to providing further field development support and production optimisation input on the asset. Despite the huge decline in oil prices, which triggered a global cut back in investments, projects capex and opex reviews, deferments, cancellations and contract renegotiation, CESL remained committed to the Aje project development.
“These were trying times but as a company, we will continue to assure business sustainability for continued value creation in the Industry. Some companies like us brought creativity to play and this kept them going. The risks faced, with grave implications on revenue base, capacity to employ and support social investments, did not deter some players like us in the Industry because we had to think out of the box and delivered world class services,” CESL added.
According to Momodu Kassim Momodu & Toyin Akinosho’s report in the Petroleum Technology Development Journal titled Aje field: from OPL 309 to OML 113, described the discovery of oil in commercial quantity in the field as a big feat as the field was rated more of a gas than oil field in the past, which made Syntroleum Corporation, one of YFP’s early partners and technical advisers, to offer its gas-to liquids (GTL) technology for the gas expected to be produced from the field.
Aje field previously located in oil prospecting licence (OPL) 309 and now in oil mining lease (OML) 113, is an offshore oil and gas asset located in the frontier Benin-Dahomey basin, in water depth of about 300 feet, and 20 kilometers offshore Lagos. It was discovered in 1996 and after exploratory and appraisal drilling spanning nearly two decades, Aje field reached first oil in May 2016, when it commenced production of commercial volumes of oil and gas from two wells.