Supplement September/October 2015

& PROJECT FORWARDING INTERNATIONAL

Intels: An oasis of calmin West Africa

A Special Supplement

PROMOTIONALFEATUREINTELS

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The Onne port complex and servicescentre in Nigeria’s Niger Delta is amiracle of modern engineering –built on what was a virgin swamp.Nigeria has vast potential, but is a

difficult market too. Major headaches forinternational oil and gas companies trying toset up operations concern infrastructure,security, logistics and bureaucracy.

Consider the steps needed to establish anoperation in Nigeria. Staff need a safe placein which to live and work. Security is aserious issue. Reliable supplies of electricityand clean water are not guaranteed, nor aredependable internet connections. And whatabout equipment – cranes, forklifts andother cargo handling items – not to mentionproperly trained staff to handle them?

And assuming that the many issues canbe organised; how do you secure a lease on asuitable plot of land that is in the right place?

Companies using us can concentrate on whatthey do best – running their own operations– not worrying about all the other issues.”

The Onne Port Complex is world class.85 percent of vessels involved in Nigeria’soil and gas industry call at the port – 250 ormore oceangoing ships and over 4,800supply ships per year.

The complex is also the largest and fastestgrowing oil and gas Free Trade Zoneworldwide and a supplier park for theenergy industry.

Companies in Onne can find any serviceor support they need, such as pipe coating,vessel bunkering and supply, ship repairs,catering, subsea equipment maintenance,cargo handling, logistics, machinerymaintenance and repair, Customs clearanceor duty-free storage.

The complex’s efficiency means vesselsspend less time in port, which is especially

At Intels, the operator of the portcomplex and services centre, staff say thatcompanies can leave Nigeria’s problemsbehind when they enter Intels’ dedicated OilService Centre in Onne – or its three othersimilar facilities in Lagos, Warri or Calabar.

Sascha Kuehl, the company’s generalmanager, describes it as: “A convenient, one-stop service; Africa without the headaches.

An oasis of calmin West Africa

The Onne Port Complex and Oil & Gas Service Centre

Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne.

Federal Ocean Terminal, Onne.

PROMOTIONALFEATUREINTELSwww.intelservices.com

www.heavyliftpfi.com Supplement September/October 2015 3

important in the oil and gas sector wheretime is money. “Processes here are very fast,”says Kuehl. “Customs is on site. Clients canCustoms-clear 24 hours per day, every day.”

Onne Freeport’s success has left thegovernment wanting to replicate it and it hasapproved similar zones at Warri and Calabar.

With 160 generators in Onne, electricitysupply is not a problem. Internet connectionis amongst the fastest in the country. Thereis no problem with land acquisition. Intelshas an option to renew its 25-yearconcession for a further 25 years.

Safe living

Client personnel have access to thecountry’s most comfortable and safest livingenvironment. It fully conforms to the oiland gas industry’s standards and was one offew locations in the Nigerian Delta to keepoperating during unrest in the area a fewyears ago. It was the only operational base atthe port of Warri during that period and isrecognised as a ‘safe haven’ by ExxonMobil.

Intels operates several high qualityapartment complexes in Nigeria: A 981-

in charge of special projects.Nearing completion is the Onne Port

Multi Centre. This will include a residence,exhibition and conference centre and alandmark restaurant; built to the highestinternational standards, aimed at attractingmajor regional oil and gas industry events.

The industry operators and servicecompanies at the Onne Oil & Gas FreeZone include: ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total,Cameron Valves, FMC, Bourbon, GE,Baker Hughes, Addax Petroleum, PipeCoaters Nigeria, West African ContainerTerminal/Maersk, West African Machineryand Services, West African Catering, WestAtlantic Shipyard, Tenaris, Salma Nigeria,and Kongsberg Maritime.

HLPFI

apartment complex at Onne, a smaller one atAba Road near Port Harcourt, HeliconiaPark in Port Harcourt and at Warri.

The site is monitored by CCTV 24/7.The security system extends to GPS trackingof trucks; and cars and buses transportingpersonnel. International oil majors prefer touse Intels’ transport for this reason.

ISPS compliant

Onne Port is fully compliant with ISPS,the international safety and securitystandard for ports. It has daily protectedconvoys to and from offshore sites tocounter the threat of piracy. Since theybegan, there have been no incidents, saysCaptain Davor Dobrovic, Intels’ manager

Orlean Invest:Power to the peopleWhat does the average Nigerian worker want? Secure employment and access todecent healthcare and education would probably top the list for most. Intels’holding company, Orlean Invest Holding Ltd is doing its bit to give something tolocal communities.

To avoid some of the problems that have beset industry and localcommunities in the Niger Delta region, Orlean Invest works closely with the Onneand Ogu communities. When it saw how much it was spending importingthousands of employee overalls, it set up the Women’s Empowerment Centre inOnne, to teach locals the skills to do this work – saving money and creatingjobs. 500 women have been trained and some have started local businesses.Orlean Invest plans to produce t-shirts and polo shirts, too.

Building relationships

Orlean Invest is serious about building relations with local people, explains DavidAlagoa, who is responsible for the community programme. “It is not just a smallunit buried away somewhere. It is one of the management’s top priorities.”

Community projects include local sports centres and sponsored tournaments,roads, schools, water supplies, mobile health clinics and educational

scholarships. A programme to train around 50 graduates from the localcommunity for 12 months should lead to offers of employment in the company.

The company launched a group-wide training academy in 2013. With 20regular courses and 18 specialist ones, it runs two or three courses in a typicalweek and trains around 8,000 people a year, says Todd Bowler, training manager,including slinging /rigging training, ICT, supervisory and management courses.

Along with the government, Intels’ oil and gas industry clients want toimprove safety standards and demand that staff can operate safely andeffectively. “There is greater awareness of global best practice,” Bowler says.

The academy will move into a purpose-built facility in Onne Port MultiCentre, increasing flexibility and improving the standard of training further.

Intels also undertakes a wide range of safety training, adds QHSE managerSimon Parker, adopting the best global practice and in line with oil and gasindustry standards. Intels is audited often by the major international companies.

The end result? In mid-August, Intels had gone 8 million working hours and afull year without any lost time incidents – an impressive record anywhere in theworld, especially West Africa. Major tenant ExxonMobil says that Intels’ operationhas one of the best safety records, not just in Nigeria, but anywhere in the world.

Orlean Invest has many other real estate and other projects in Nigeria andelsewhere, including the Eko Atlantic development to create a new city onreclaimed land off Victoria Island. The company is part of a consortiumdeveloping the Badagry port and free zone outside Lagos; and oil and gasfacilities in Angola and Mozambique are also being developed by Orlean Invest.At Port Harcourt and Onne it has invested USD5 million in the road infrastructure.

FPSO Integration Yarddevelopment inprogress, Onne.

Federal LighterTerminal, Onne.

PROMOTIONALFEATUREINTELS www.intelservices.com

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The Nigerian Government’s Oil & GasFree Zone Act of 1996 was the catalyst forthe development of oil and gas free zones

in the country.Intels is the most successful operator of

such facilities in Nigeria, with the world’slargest oil and gas free zone at Onne, plusothers in Warri and Lagos. Onne’s success isdue to it being conceived right from the startas a public-private partnership, driven by theprivate sector, says Subodh Bhalla, specialeconomic zones administrator.

Attractions of the free zone include:• Freedom from state and local taxes and

VAT for qualifying goods.• 100% foreign ownership is possible.• Simplied employment for expatriates • Goods can be imported without being

Customs-cleared or duty paid.• No duty for goods imported into the free

zone, then exported out of Nigeria.• Goods can be stored duty-free for an

indefinite period and they can beassembled, disassembled and processed.

• Manufacturers can produce items and onlypay duty on raw material imports.

• Companies that add value to goods in thefree zone, without changing their basicnature (e.g. pipe coaters) only pay 25%duty on the finished goods when they areimported fully into Nigeria.

• Companies do not need to obtain a FormM from the Nigerian Central Bank –normally a complex seven-stage process -for goods in heavy Port Harcourt traffic –particularly bad for outsize and heavyloads, saving time, money; reducing therisk of accidents.

• Imports to Port Harcourt Internationalairport can also enjoy free zone status –moving under bond directly to the freezone, as can items that move under bondto other Nigerian free zones.

HLPFI

Intels, a 100 % subsidiary of Nigeria’s Orlean Invest,was founded by chairman and ceo Gabriele Volpi in1988. From small beginnings, with a leased site inOnne port, the company has become the largestlogistics company in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.Italian by birth, Volpi first came to Nigeria in 1976,and is now a citizen along with his son, Simone,managing director of Intels Nigeria Ltd.

Intels’ business started to take off when thedefunct Nicotes took out a five-year lease on theFederal Lighter Terminal (FLT) in the then smallgovernment-owned port of Onne. After the windingup and dissolution of Nicotes, Intels acquired itsbusiness and assets. Now, as well as Onne, Intelsoperates ports at Warri, at Lagos through a jointventure with Eko Support Services, and at Calabar.

One-stop shop

It is the only company in Nigeria able to offer a one-stop shop including ports, cargo handling, dedicatedequipment and personnel, excellent accommodation,as well ship agency services.

In 2008, Intels became the first, and so far only,port operator in Nigeria to move away from daylabour, to giving workers permanent employment.This had a positive effect on employee welfareensuring safety, training and quality levels aremaintained.

In a country where dock strikes are frequent,Intels has lost no time at all to labour disputessince implementing the programme.

Nigeria’s oil and gas industry faces uniquechallenges, says Captain Davor Dobrovic. One, theneed to service both onshore and offshore sites,means land and water logistics solutions arerequired. Another is the need for major storageareas for pipes and other material. “Unlike, say, theUSA, you cannot bring in materials quickly by truck;everything has to come by ship, which takes severalweeks. Companies that need to respond quickly toclients’ requirements need to store large amounts ofmaterial. That means you need a lot of space. Onneis unique among Nigerian ports in providing this.”

Pipe maker Tenaris uses Onne as a hub forproducts made in factories overseas, which areshipped in on regular breakbulk liner services,‘threaded’ in Onne and dispatched by road to land-based sites, or loaded onto offshore supply ships.Base manager Alex Dirks says Tenaris chose Onne asa regional hub for pipe storage and distribution asit allows the company to react quickly, is a reliablelogistics base and has great residential facilities.

Along with other oil and gas majors,ExxonMobil has had its main Nigerian base at Onnesince 2004, says manager James Anifowese. Hesays advantages of Intels include security. “It is alsoclose to the drilling locations, and is a one-stopshop with all the facilities we need. We do not haveto travel miles to get here. Food is not an issue.”

Intels is in the midst of a major investment andreorganisation programme in Onne. It will create asingle gate for the Federal Liner Terminal (FLT) andFederal Ocean Terminal (FOT) with a truck parkingarea between them. A major channel dredging andland reclamation project is under way creating afurther 6.5 km of jetties, with up to 12-15 mdraught, to cater for the ever larger supply vessels.

Removal of an island in the river mouth willmake vessel entry to the port easier and safe. Thereare longer-term plans to reposition the WACTterminal, freeing up land for other operations.

Plans exist to reclaim and develop 1,477 ha atIkpokiri island, ensuring that Onne port will haveeven more space to expand and develop in future.

Plant and equipment at Onne includes:• Total of about 5 km of jetties• 6 million sq m of developed industrial area• Three berths in FLT• 11 berths in FOT• 3 million sq m of operational space in total • Dedicated heavy lift handling area, reinforced

to 50 tonnes/sq m • Total of 65 cranes ranging from 30-250 tonnes• Fleet of 10 Manitowoc mobile cranes• 107 forklifts with capacities of 2-40 tonnes• 136 trucks, 143 trailers• Health & Safety and firefighting service.

Ongoing expansion for Onne

In the freetrade zone

Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone, Nigeria.

Residential facility inOnne Oil & Gas Free Zone.