Jude Abalaka, managing director of Tranos Contracting, talks to Oil Review Africa about succeeding in a challenging environment and the importance of meeting Nigerian local content requirements
How important is meeting Nigerian local content requirements to Tranos?
Abalaka: As a Nigerian owned and managed company, Nigerian content is very important to us. As a result, meeting the local content requirements is a key focus. We have invested enormously in setting up a world-class manufacturing and fabrication facility, we have invested in training lots of our Nigerian engineers and technicians and we have been awarded a Nigerian Content Equipment Certificate to confirm this.
We are firm believers in the ability of Nigerians to achieve great things when given the chance, and we are putting things in place to make sure we excel using Nigerian resources.
What are the biggest success stories for the oil and gas part of the business?
Abalaka: A big success story was the design, fabrication and testing of a subsea pipe casing for Shell Petroleum Development Company. The clamp was used for the repair of a 48-inch damaged pipeline.
Are you feeling optimistic about the economy, and how did Tranos manage during the oil price downturn?
Abalaka: The economy has not been as good as expected, but there are signs of improvement. We, however, need to see these materialise. We are a diversified technology company with customers in various sectors of the Nigerian economy, therefore a downturn in one sector will not have too much of an impact on the company as a whole.
What exciting projects do you have coming up for the rest of 2018 and into 2019 across the different sectors in which Tranos operates?
Abalaka: Currently, we have a couple of projects we are working on, we have the gas generators which we are developing for the telecoms industry. And we have our Eureka product line of switches and sockets which we will be launching in a couple of months. Tranos will be the first Nigerian company to carry out the manufacturing of switches and sockets locally. In addition to these, we are also working on some prospective projects involving the design and fabrication of E-Houses for oil and gas companies.
Do you have any corporate social responsibility projects?
Abalaka: We believe in supporting things we believe, and one of these is education. We have, at various times, supported educational institutions and groups like the Mechanical Engineering Department of the University of Lagos as well as the Lagos State University Engineering Association. We are always on the lookout for opportunities to support learning.
