- Senators Lauds Total, Partners on Egina FPSO
The Senate Committees on Gas and Petroleum (Upstream) have commended Total and its partners for the progress made towards the completion of the Egina Floating, Storage, Production and Offloading unit.
The FPSO, which arrived in Nigeria last month, is being finalised at the Samsung Heavy Industries Yard in LADOL Free Zone, Lagos.
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources, Senator Omotayo Alasoadura, and his Gas Committee counterpart, Senator Barnabas Gemade, led the committees on an inspection tour of the 330m-long Egina FPSO, according to a statement from Total.
“Seeing the Egina FPSO has shown that a good investment has been made to ensure that Nigeria moves deeper into the sea to exploit its God-given endowment of oil,” Alasoadura was quoted as saying.
“I believe that with Egina going operational very soon, Nigeria will be able to meet its quota not only to OPEC but also will have enough to meet its other commitments. I believe that it is a good project and Total has done a great thing bringing such an FPSO to Nigeria, making it first in Africa. This milestone has brought us to where we should be as the giant of Africa,” he added.
On the local content work being done on the project, Alasoadura said, “It is massive development of capacity. You cannot do much for local development without building capacity and that has been done by giving Nigerians the opportunity to build part of what we are seeing here today. I am sure the next time, it will take less money and time to build something similar because of developed capacity.”
In his remarks, Gemade said, “We are very excited about the participation of Nigerians that are technically qualified in major and huge projects like Egina. This impact cannot just be swept under the carpet. Those responsible for actualising this project must be commended.”
The Managing Director, Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Nicolas Terraz, thanked the senators for taking time out to visit the Egina FPSO, saying, “What you are seeing here is a product of the hard work of our staff, many of who are Nigerians, along with our very supportive partners and Nigerian authorities.”
