Indigenous firm harps on transparent marginal field bid rounds

A leading indigenous oil and gas firm, Baywood Continental Limited, has harped on a transparent marginal bid rounds at the forthcoming marginal field bid rounds expected to take place in third quarter of 2017.

In the past, Nigerian government have exhibited such powers of discretionary award of marginal field to operators rather than creating a transparent process whereby interested participants may have equal chances of winning.

However, the Chief Executive Officer, Baywood Continental Limited, Emperor Chris Baywood Ibe, argued that “we have been here for a long while and hopefully we will participate in the next marginal bid rounds. Hopefully, it will be transparent or else, we won’t participate. If we have a government that allows the process to flow, we will participate because when they price rightly, the asset will be economically viable. Government should address the issue of lowest bidder because they do it with intent of revaluation. This would affect indigenous companies in the long run.

“Nigerians have been doing the job with foreigners as supervisors. But we have gone past that. Though, local content has its flaws and advantages. Without the local content policy, most projects won’t have come to us but to other foreign companies but at prices higher than what we charged.”

While commenting on the lull in the global crude oil market, he stated that “This is the time for anyone to be in business. If you are very excessive in your operations, reduce it, no private jets. My business isn’t politically motivated. Oil price has crashed, but assets must be managed. We are in tanks and production facilities. We have a niche in the sector and we have made very big inroads and our footprints are too large to be neglected. We have not reduced our staff strength, but instead, we are increasing. We don’t over-staff.”

While sharing the company’s vision for the year 2017, Emperor Ibe stated that “key strategic and organisational decisions taken with respect to maximizing the available opportunities in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector enabled us to position the company to become a frontline player in the sector.

“Over the years, our company has achieved a widely acclaimed track record for excellence in our project deliveries with a number of Industry Firsts. BCL is the first to have engineered, designed and constructed the largest on-shore gas pipeline in Nigeria for TOTAL Exploration & Production. This project being BCLs’ flagshipunder OML 58 Upgrade  Obite-Ubeta-Rumuji (O.U.R)is a 42” X 46km gas pipeline a major artery supplying  gas  to ALAOJI power plant for power generation to the grid as well as gas supply to NLNG.

“Additionally, BCL is first to carry out river crossing through HDD of the largest bore pipe of 1km crossing through Sambrero River. It is a record setting feat in the Nigerian Oil Industry by an indigenous company. BCL has also demonstrated an impressive capacity in our project delivery records.

“We have constantly supported our clients towards ensuring value- for-money audit in such areas as facility upgrade and construction enabling them to produce, process & export through the export terminals where we have held our own. These terminals include and not limited to Escravos Terminal operated by Chevron, Forcados Terminal operated by Shell, Bonny Terminal operated by Shell, AKPO FPSO operated by Total in deep water and Sea Eagle FPSO Operated by Shell.”

As a demonstration of unwavering commitment of the company to Corporate Social Responsibility he stated that “we always strive to affect positively the lives of our host communities by providing employment, transportation, water supply and affordable health care such as in Escravos, Forcados, Bonny Island, Emuhuoa, Obite, Rumuji to mention but a few of our work locations.

“The future for Baywood Continental Ltd is extremely exciting and we are looking to upscale our operations especially, Marginal Fields, acquisition of matured Oil fields from Oil Majors and explore new frontiers in the energy sector such as cluster power generation using abundant gas for upcoming new cities and towns,” he said.

Baywood Continental Limited is re-branding to achieve a brand equity balance between current and projected profile of the company. Baywood Continental Limited is a wholly Nigerian owned integrated Oil & Gas Technical Service Company; ISO 9001: 2008 Certified incorporated in 1989 as a Procurement Company. BCL as a major EPC company has corporate offices in Nigeria and Canada operating in segments and business portfolios in such areas as onshore/offshore large-diameter Pipeline design and Construction,Process Facilities Design and Construction, Storage Tank Construction, Upgrade and Rehabilitation, Onshore/Offshore Structures Fabrication, Installation, FPSO Operations & Maintenance as well as Oil and Gas Facilities Operations and Maintenance.ax