Senate Moves to Resuscitate Kaztec’s $1bn Oil Industry Fabrication Yard in Lagos

Peter Uzoho

The Senate has begun the process of resuscitating the moribund $1 billion Kaztec Engineering Limited’s oil and gas fabrication yard at Snake Island, Ilashe, Lagos State.
The move is part of the upper legislative chamber’s commitment to investigating the reasons behind the project’s shutdown to seek solutions for reviving the facility to revitalise the Nigerian economy.

The Senate Committee on Petroleum (Upstream), led by its Chairman, Senator Eteng Williams, yesterday embarked on an oversight visit to the Kaztec fabrication yard to ascertain the level of degradation suffered by the facility since its eight years of inactivity owing to a force majeure declared on it in 2015 by Addax Petroleum.

 Accompanied by eight other members of the committee, Williams assured that the Senate would ensure that the company gets justice and the facility revived.
The Antan project, estimated to cost about $1 billion to complete, being built by Kaztec Engineering, started in 2012 and was planned for the drilling of over 19 million barrels of Nigerian crude.
The project which had already gulped over $600 million and attained 70 per cent completion was expected to be a one-stop-shop for the fabrication of offshore platforms, large offshore modules, Floating Production, Storage and Offloading (FPSO) refurbishment, and new build jackets.
It was also intended to provide facilities like pipe mill, pipe coating, dry and floating dock, logistics, supply base, and skills development and satisfaction of all the project delivery needs of oil and gas companies doing business in Nigeria and provide jobs for Nigerians.

However, for eight years, activities at the project site had ceased owing to a force majeure declared on it in 2015 by Addax Petroleum, the project technical partner, arising from taxes and audit issues between the federal government and Addax Petroleum
The facility was projected to generate over $33 billion values in revenues and foreign exchange savings for the federal government over 10 years, in addition to over 3,000 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect job opportunities for Nigerians.

Speaking after touring the fabrication yard and receiving briefings from Kaztec officials, the Senate committee chairman expressed the readiness of the committee and the Senate to properly investigate issues relating to the keeping of the critical oil and gas asset moribund for eight years.
Williams pledged that his committee would carry out a comprehensive investigation, and identify the factors that led to the project’s current status while ensuring that justice was served to all the parties.
He also assured that the visit had afforded the committee first-hand knowledge and would lead to effective formulation of policies resulting in a revival of the company and preventing future occurrence.

He added that all parties involved in the matter, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), the federal government, and others would be heard to enable it to proffer a solution for the revival of the project.

Williams said: “We’ve seen it all. We’re going back to the drawing board and we will call everyone involved.
“We have the assurance of the Senate President because we all want this country to work for everyone”
“We’re committed to making things work and we’re assuring all stakeholders that justice will be done.”

The Senate committee’s efforts align with the vision of the President Tinubu administration towards maximizing the nation’s petroleum resources and leveraging them for the overall growth and development of Nigeria.