The Subsea Tree
Refurbishment feat by Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCo)
in-country, drew a deafening applause as it earned Shell Companies in Nigeria
the Best Performing International Company in Technology and Innovation at the
awards night of the maiden edition of the Nigeria International Petroleum
Summit in Abuja, reports NaijaAgroNet.
The state-organised
event was attended by Nigerian and international industry leaders.
SNEPCo pioneered
the in-country feat and achieved significant savings in the cost of the subsea
equipment led by Nigerian engineers. A Subsea Tree is an arrangement of valves
and other components installed at the wellhead to control and monitor
production flow and manage fluids injection. SNEPCo embarked on a Tree
Refurbishment initiative in 2013 to ensure timely delivery of the equipment at
lower cost for the Bonga Phase 2 project, an in-field wells delivery and
hook–up programme within the Bonga Field which has been in execution since
2007.
On hand to receive
the award presented by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe
Kachikwu, were the Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director
of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr.
Osagie Okunbor, and the Managing Director of SNEPCo, Mr. Bayo Ojulari.
An excited Okunbor
described the award as a recognition of the pioneering role of Shell Companies
in Nigeria in local capacity development and Nigeria content. “We are pleased
that this feat has continued to receive recognition within and outside Nigeria.
Beyond cost consideration, we were also looking to indigenise the know-how so
that Nigerian engineers can acquire the necessary skills,” he said.
Speaking on the
award, Ojulari said, “This is a success story not only for Shell but for
Nigeria. The first Subsea Tree under the programme was installed on schedule in
May 2015. This was the first of its kind re-using a Subsea Tree fully stripped
down and refurbished locally in Nigeria, with all of its original functionality
restored.
“The scope of work
entailed the retrieval of the Subsea Trees for disassembly, repair and rebuild
following procedures developed by the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) to
international standards and codes. The work was done at the OEM/SNEPCo
logistics base at Onne in Rivers State with Nigerian engineers and technicians
playing key roles. The quick turnaround of these Trees has helped to increase
oil production in the Bonga field. The expenditure on this work in Nigeria
aligns with the cost of similar Subsea Tree refurbishment in Europe. We have
since sustained the in-country refurbishment.”
SNEPCo saves about
$6 million for every refurbished Subsea Tree, and this is delivered within
15 months as against 36 months for newly manufactured ones.
SNEPCo helped to
create the first generation of Nigerian deep water professionals through the
Bonga project which started production in 2005, as Nigeria’s first oil and gas
production project in more than 1,000 metres of water. The project was expanded
with further drilling of wells in Bonga Phases 2 and 3 and through a subsea
tie-back that unlocked the nearby Bonga North West field in August 2014, which
has peak production of approximately 60,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day.
Bonga Phase 3 achieved first oil in October 2015.
SNEPCo operates
Bonga field on behalf of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation in
partnership with Esso Exploration and Production (Deepwater Ltd)–Exxon, Total
E&P Nigeria Ltd – Total and Nigerian Agip Exploration Ltd – ENI. The other
Shell Companies in Nigeria are SPDC and Shell Nigeria Gas.
Isaac Oyimah/GEE
Pix: L-R: Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor; and the Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company, Mr. Bayo Ojulari, during the presentation of The Best International Company in Technology and Innovation to Shell at the 2018 Nigeria International Petroleum Summit held in Abuja… on Monday.
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