Engineering services provider Cegelec has secured one of its largest-ever contracts in the oil and gas sector. The $50 million-plus assignment, awarded to Cegelec and its partner in Nigeria Prime Atlantic, was issued by Chevron affiliate Star Deep Water Petroleum. The scope includes providing a training facility to prepare Nigerian nationals for work on Chevron Nigeria’s current and future projects.
Cegelec/Prime will develop and implement an accredited training program for 95 -120 Nigerian students per year, over an initial contract period of three years. Throughout West Africa, as in other regions, there are increasing pressures on foreign operators to build a local skills base. Largely with Agbami in mind, Chevron built training facilities from scratch at a location 80 km north of Lagos. These will be managed by Cegelec.
“We will provide a full range of services for training operations and maintenance personnel on the Agbami FPSO and related facilities,” says Philippe Lecois, senior VP of Cegelec Global Systems & Services. “This project represents the first step in our long-term strategy to develop our services both in Nigeria and throughout the Gulf of Guinea.”
Cegelec has over 30 years’ training and development experience in the oil and gas industry. Its track record includes compiling comprehensive competency assessment programs for around 400 Indonesia nationals, and the recruitment and training of over 50 Angolan nationals for the Girassol FPSO, at a period coinciding with the end of Angola’s 27-year civil war.
In Nigeria, the company aims to provide trainees with the internationally recognized Cogent certification. Cegelec is also aligned with the Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organization (Opito), which is in the process of certifying the company’s training methodologies.
Currently, Cegelec Oil & Gas trains around 1,000 students annually, training sessions being organized either on the clients’ premises, or at Cegelec’s dedicated facilities in France, West Africa, or Abu Dhabi.
