Moses Uwagbale
The National Engineering and Technical Company (NETCO) says it is exploring business opportunities in Equatorial Guinea to boost revenue generation capacity.
Mr Usman Baba, Managing Director, NETCO, made the disclosure during an oversight visit of the House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources (Upstream) to the company in Lagos.
Baba said the vision of NETCO was to become the hub of engineering, procurement and construction in the West African sub-region and major revenue earner for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the next five years.
He said NETCO was established in December 1988 to provide an efficient and reliable engineering base for the NNPC Group and the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
According to him, NETCO has been involved in some key projects in the last five years including the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Train seven projects, refineries rehabilitation project and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano Gas pipeline project.
He added that the company was also involved in capacity building in the industry.
Baba noted that about 80 young engineers were currently undergoing training in the company.
He said though business opportunities had been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the NETCO management had designed various strategies to enhance profitability.
The managing director said the company recently acquired a land to build a fabrication yard in Akwa Ibom which would help to reduce capital flight when operational.
While thanking the committee for the visit, Baba appealed for their continuous cooperation and support to enable NETCO actualise its mandate.
In his remarks, the Chairman of the Committee, Mr Musa Adar, said NETCO had a key role to play in helping to curb unemployment through provision of training opportunities for young Nigerians.
Adar said the oversight visit was part of the committee’s statutory duties to support the company to achieve its lofty ideas.
