OIL CLEANING BIO-PRODUCTS LTD.
PRESS RELEASE
BRITISH TRADE MISSION TO THE NIGERIAN OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY
TEXT OF ADDRESS BY R.C.H. GENOCHIO,
MANAGING DIRECTOR OF OIL CLEANING BIO-PRODUCTS LTD.,
AT THE SEMINAR IN PORT HARCOURT, NIGERIA,
ON 6th. MARCH 1997"THE CONTRIBUTION OF UK ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY, EQUIPMENT and SERVICES TO THE NIGERIAN OIL and GAS INDUSTRY"
Mr. Chairman, Your Excellencies, Distinguished Guests, Fellow Trade Missioners:
It is a great privilege for me as Managing Director of Oil Cleaning Bio-Products Ltd. to be able to address such a distinguished and expert audience from the oil and gas industry in one of the world's leading petroleum producing countries. The British Trade Mission of which OCBP is proud to form part offers a valuable opportunity for UK supply companies to familiarise themselves with the aspirations and needs of this still-growing industry in Nigeria.
The responsible handling of the environmental, health and safety issues which inevitably arise from an extractive and processing industry such as oil and gas is a key factor in the continuing acceptance and success of that industry. But before I move on to talk about the UK environmental technology supply and services industry as a whole and what it can offer Nigeria, let me explain briefly what OCBP is and we can provide.
Oil Cleaning Bio-Products Ltd. is a UK company supplying a range of non-toxic and biodegradable pollution control materials. They include absorbents, liquid dispersants, degreasers and cleansers, and bacterial bioremediation agents. They are used for oil spills on land, water and concrete, for the bacterial bioremediation of contaminated land, for the bacterial degradation of oily wastes and sludges, the filtration and separation of oil and water from effluent streams, and for routine plant maintenance and cleansing.
We have major customers in the UK and we are now expanding to make the products available in other oil-producing countries such as Saudi Arabia and Nigeria. We have established a marketing partnership with a Nigerian company in Port Harcourt, and I am very pleased to see its Managing Director in the audience today. Since most of you know Chris very well already, he needs no futher introduction from me.
It has been made very clear to us in our conversations in both Lagos and Port Harcourt that environmental protection is an important shared objective of the Nigerian government and of the oil companies in Nigeria. Environmental protection bears not only upon the integrity of the environment itself but also upon public health and the safety and health of the workforce. These are issues in all industrial sectors and in all countries. It may be helpful for British and Nigerian people to put our own preoccupations into perspective by remembering the huge scale of these problems in eastern Europe and in the countries of the former Soviet Union.
In all countries, the management of environmental risks is increasingly seen not as an extra, but as an inherent part of good business management. Success in this field is not easy, and depends upon five key factors. These are, first, well-framed regulation; second, consistent and thorough enforcement; third, the commercial desire to get it right; fourth, sound management systems and training; and, fifth, the availability of appropriate technology and solutions.
It is of course this last point on which I shall concentrate in these remarks. However, it must be said that the best solution lies in preventative engineering which will help to ensure the long-term integrity of facilities for production, pipeline transportation and processing. My colleagues from other British companies have given you examples earlier this morning of first class engineering design and of high-quality equipment. These are the first line of defence in pollution control. But accidents and mistakes have occurred and will occur again, and there is, alas, a need for end-of-pipe solutions to deal with the consequences.
Oil Cleaning Bio-Products is an end-of-pipe company, but only one small part of a large, resourceful and multi-skilled UK environmental service and supply industry. Owing to the outstanding UK science base and to the need to design and operate to the highest international standards of environmental protection, the UK environmental industry is poised for further growth. Moreover, it has proved itself on the scale and in the challenging conditions of the UK oil industry upstream and downstream, as described by David Pearey of the British High Commission.
The market scope is large. The world-wide market for environmental goods and services was estimated at $200 billion in 1992, and is expected to grow to $600 billion in 2000. World-wide expenditure on contaminated land in 1992 was $5 billion, and this is expected to grow to $20 billion in 2000. British companies are well-placed to continue to play a large part in the intense activity which those figures represent.
The figures themselves were prepared by the UK Environmental Industries Commission. Until 1995, the UK industry had no single representative voice. Indeed, because of the diversity of the technical skills involved, the existence of a "UK environmental industry" as such was perhaps one of our best- kept industrial secrets. That has now changed. The EIC now has almost 200 member companies. It has a number of in-depth working groups on new technology and regulatory issues. It is committed to ensuring high standards. It is developing a major new export initiative. This is planned to operate in conjunction with the export services of the Department of Trade and Industry, and with the Joint Environmental Markets Unit in London - on which Shay Azumah in the British High Commission Office here in Port Harcourt can give more information.
The EIC has just published a Handbook listing in detail the services and supplies available from over 200 British companies in this sector. This will shortly be available for anyone to consult at the British High Commission, and I advise the oil companies and the environmental service and contracting companies here today to do so.
So the UK environmental industry is getting its collective act together. The expertise on offer is wide-ranging. Obviously it includes consultancy - there are large and small stand-alone environmental consultancies, and also the environmental arms of many of the UK's famous international civil engineering firms. In addition, most of the privatised water supply companies have their own international environmental consultancies and engineering expertise.
There is also proven expertise in equipment design, manufacture and supply, and project execution for effluent treatment, water treatment, waste management and contaminated land.
Other particular categories include:
- Landfill and incineration design and operation;
- Waste minimisation programmes;
- Waste management;
- Noise control;
- Atmospheric pollution control;
- Instrumentation, monitoring and analysis;
- Oil spill equipment and response capability;
- and, last but not least, specialist technologies such as bacterial bioremediation.
All of this is at the service of the Nigerian oil industry. Many of the companies involved are already here but you will find more British companies in these fields knocking on your doors - doors which I believe are already open. We shall be looking not merely for customers, but for Nigerian distributors and partners, with whom we shall be able to grow and to make a long-term commitment to this country.
I am convinced that in advancing our own business interests, British environmental companies will at the same time make a strong contribution to Nigerian industry and be of benefit to the people of Nigeria.