By Adewale Sanyaolu
ND Western, an indigenous oil and gas exploration company is set to bag the Indigenous Oil Company of the Year Award at the maiden edition of Energy Times Awards which holds on Friday.
ND Western was part of a consortium of five companies comprising four exploration and production companies based in Nigeria and an international energy group which bought Shell Nigerian onshore subsidiary; The Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) in a whopping $2.5 billion deal.
ND Western is responsible for running all the assets under the OML34 Asset Management Team (AMT) Joint Venture (JV) Operations between NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL)
The company is also responsible for the Utorogu, Ughelli East and Ughelli West Fields production performance including the flowstations and the gas plants. Utorogu (NAG1 & 2) and Ughelli East gas plants with 600mmscf/d capacity which is one of the largest gas processing plants in the country supplying 30 to 40 per cent of Nigeria’s domestic gas power plants requirement.
The company delivered the first HDD Project for ND Western and OML34 AMT. This is the 12 inches by 12km Utorogu to UPS HDD line delivered at 30meters below the earth surface using horizontal directional drilling as an effective mitigation against crude oil pipeline theft and vandalization. The company is currently delivering the 60,000 barrels per day OML 34 water handling project. This project is combined with the alternative evacuation project that guarantees the evacuation of dry crude from the OML34 JV asset without the current constrain from UPS limiting further production growth from the asset.
The company is currently building the Utorogu Industrial Park which will be one of the largest industrial clusters in sub–Saharan Africa if fully realised. Spanning over 25km radius from the Utorogu plant, it will provide a platform for the serious industrialization of the Niger Delta, creating thousands of employments and reimagining the future of our industry and the Niger Delta.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu; the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kolo Kyari; Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki and his Nasarawa State counterpart, Abdullahi Sule, are among dignitaries that will grace the event which holds at Eko Hotels & Suite, Victoria Island.
Adelabu, who will lead the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry to the occasion and will also double as the Special Guest of Honour.
The GCEO of NNPCL, Mele Kolo Kyari, is expected to lead top Nigerian Oil and Gas players to the event.
Kyari who has spearheaded the turnaround of NNPCL from loss-making to a profit-making company will take the GCEO of the Year award while the Chairman of Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, will be conferred with the BusinessMan of the Year award.
MOMAS Electricity Meter Manufacturing Company (MEMMCOL) will receive the most Innovative Company of the Year.
Heir Energies will be conferred with emerging energy company of the year.
Also, five long-standing subscribers to the newspaper will be appreciated at the event with certificates of recognition.
The awardees which were carefully selected based on their contributions in the energy sector include top industry players, organisations and government agencies whose contributions have impacted the economy and people’s lives positively.
A statement signed by the newspaper’s Editorial Board Chairman, Alhaji Yakubu Lawal, stated that being the maiden edition, a team of industry experts were constituted into a body of Advisers to deepen the content of the award.
Speaking further, Lawal said that this year’s award was meant to appreciate and recognize individuals and companies whose works had impacted people’s lives positively.