Siemens Limited Nigeria has inaugurated a new facility in Port Harcourt to increase local capacity in the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
The company said it invested about €3m in the facility and developed it according to international specifications and standards.
It said the Siemens Port Harcourt Service facility was equipped to repair and overhaul highly sophisticated equipment that would previously have been sent overseas.
The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Siemens Limited, Onyeche Tifase, while speaking at the opening of the new Siemens Port Harcourt Service Workshop on Wednesday, described it as the first facility of its kind for Siemens in West, East and Central Africa, and a major investment for the global Siemens service business.
Noting that Siemens registered its business in Nigeria 46 years ago, she said, “Siemens Service Centre stands as a shining example of how leading Original Equipment Manufacturers can localise their services, increase value-addition and contribute strategically to the much-needed diversification of Nigeria’s economy.
“We recognise this as a groundbreaking moment, not just for Siemens, but for Nigeria and Nigerians.”
Tifase said with over 160 years of engineering history across the world, Siemens had remained at the forefront of technological advancement through the supply of sustainable and efficient automation, digitalisation and electrification solutions and lifecycle services.
She said, “Siemens equipment outperforms in various oil and gas, manufacturing, utility and infrastructure facilities worldwide. In Nigeria, our vision for many years has been to create a world-class facility and workshop environment where service excellence is fostered to align with our client’s ever-changing needs.
“We are proud to have developed a facility that is ISO 9001 accredited and offers a modern working environment for our partners and employees.”
She said it had become even more critical in today’s economy to ensure that industrial plants and facilities run at maximum capacity and efficiency over an extended lifecycle.
“The technical experts and other employees located in the Siemens service workshop are well trained, certified and capable of developing and delivering precisely the right support to ensure maximum results and address all our customer’s service needs.
“This will ensure we remain even closer to our customers and can provide greater responsiveness, reduce turnaround time and optimise costs for undertaking maintenance programmes.”
According to Tifase, future development plans for the workshop include provision of electrical repair services for equipment such as motors, drives, switchgear, transformers, distribution boards, etc.
The Vice President, Region South and West Europe and Africa, Siemens, Mr. Philipp Kurney, said, “The capital investment in this facility is right about three million euros. That is one element to it. I think the second and potentially more important element is the amount of training and investment in people.
“We have taken a lot of people locally and put them on training programmes, allow them to learn in our factories at Europe and America.
The Maintenance and Integrity Manager, Shell Exploration and Production Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Oji Eberechukwu, described the workshop as a critical milestone.
He said it would support the Nigerian Content Development agenda and position Siemens as a more responsible and corporate business citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He said, “We will collaborate more in the utilisation of this workshop for some extraordinary maintenance and of course in the sharing and transfer of technical competencies in this space; like the just-concluded Bonga FGCs inspections in this workshop.
“Though they were preliminary, we look forward to a time when we can do complete major overhauls of our compressors and turbines and also do high speed balancing in-country.”
