Benjamin Omoike l Monday, August 24, 2020
WARRI, Nigeria – The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has shut down Offshore Safety Training Centers in Warri and Port Harcourt operated by Opeans Nigeria Limited.
Opeans Nigeria Limited operates two Offshore Safety and Emergency Training Centers in Warri and Port Harcourt.
Our Correspondent gathered that the shutdown of the two centers operated by Opeans, was due to failure of the Company to meet the DPR requirement for operating such Offshore Safety and Emergency Response training centres in Nigeria.
The company conducts courses such as the Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training (BOSIET), Helicopter Underwater Escape Training (HUET), Further Offshore Emergency Training (FOET), e.t.c, at the training centres in Warri and Port Harcourt.
Our findings revealed that DPR, in an official letter addressed to the Managing Director of Opeans stated that the Offshore Safety Training Centres operated by the company in Warri, Delta State and Port Harcourt, Rivers State, do not comply with the DPR Guideline and Procedure for Travel to Offshore/Swamp Location and Obtainment of Offshore Safety Permit.
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The DPR Guideline and Procedure for Travel to Offshore/Swamp Location and Obtainment of Offshore Safety Permit, which took effect in June 2019, states clearly the mandatory requirements that Operators of Offshore Safety and Emergency Response Training Centres must strictly adhere to.
The Director/CEO, Engr. Sarki Auwalu, had previously stated during a webinar session with the Oil and Gas Trainers Association of Nigeria (OGTAN), that the DPR is passionate about entrenching competence and capacity in the Oil and Gas training space, saying it was being cautious in granting of permits to training organisations to checkmate quackery. Auwalu, further stated that “we are trying to check quackery.
Investigations by our Correspondent on the DPR website https://www.dpr.gov.ng/offshore-training-centres/ show that Opeans Nigeria Limited accreditation expired May 11, 2020.
It would be recalled that the Delta State Government had in July, this year, shut down Opeans-owned Offshore Safety Training in Warri, for failure to produce its accreditations to operate in the state, stating that the state government had no place for quackery.
Contacted on Phone on Monday, the Warri Comptroller of DPR, Antai Asoquo, confirmed the report to our correspondent in Warri.
He said, “I act in Warri. I am not in Port Harcourt, so I can only speak for Warri. We went there (Opeans Nigeria Limited Offshore Training Centre in Warri), for accreditation and they did not meet our requirements. So the DPR has not given them permit to operate in Warri.”
