Visit the website of PE Energy and right below its logo, it has trademarked the phrase ‘Grace at Work’. On meeting the company’s founder, it begins to make sense because for Daere Akobo, this isn’t just another company set up to service the oil and gas industry, it is the culmination of a lifelong dream that has morphed into a sacred mission.
In 2009, Akobo, left General Electric to form his own company then called, Plant Engineering Limited but was later renamed PE Energy Ltd. As is common with successful people, he has gone far because he “chose to go together”. A meeting with Simbi Wabote, who headed Shell Nigeria’s procurement, led to an introduction to the right connects and together, Akobo’s dream began to take shape.
PE Energy Ltd is not just a leading African company specializing in valves and actuation, automation and controls, process solutions, measurement solutions, electrical and instrumentation solutions, and supply chain and project management, it is fast evolving into a poster child for local content success.
This can be seen in the establishment of the company’s ‘Center of Excellence,’ a sprawling administrative and industrial facility built on about 11,000 square meters of land (around 28 plots of land) in the heart of Port Harcourt’s commercial district.
PE Center of Excellence.
The PE Center of Excellence is the administrative and industrial work area of PE Nigeria Ltd. The facility is built to domesticate solutions in the upstream sector with the support of technical partners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in line with the guidelines and aspiration of the Nigerian content development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) vision 2027.
“It is a happy moment for NCDMB because nothing like this is in existence in this country”, Akobo said in an interview at the launch of the facility on Friday, in Port Harcourt, the Rivers state capital.
“We employed the services of a local construction company Megastar who did all the procurement and all installations were done by Nigerian engineers,” said Akobo.
Mega star technical construction company, which undertook the construction of the NCDMB Towers began construction in 2019.
The PE Center of Excellence is equipped with high precision equipment for complete upgrade of manual and standard actuated valves manufacture and assembly of instrument fittings, automation and system integration, testing and calibration of valves and flow measurement instruments and unmatched hands on training throughout the range of the company’s capabilities.
In addition, the center of excellence and encompasses In- country integration of the most complex valve in the world, namely High Integrity Pressure Protection System (HIPPS) packages, consisting of valves, logic solvers, pressure transmitters, and other sensory devices.
The company is going to be integrating process equipment, automating the entire value chain around metering such as gas chromatography, analyzer systems and all the supervisory control systems that address energy measurement.
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The facilities within these premises include main access control building and gate with a footprint of 428 square meters and operations beyond access control, to include security surveillance, a clinic and daycare services for staff, including nursing mothers.
The administrative building, designed as a two story structure spreading across a 562 square metre total floor area and featuring spaces for management and staff offices, conference area, lounges, kitchenette, documents control rooms and Training Center.
The Training Center within this building is fully equipped and setup to support comprehensive training of manpower for operators all over the country. The workshop one has been designated as the valves and automation center, within which the PE Center of Excellence has been equipped to assemble, maintain repair, automate, calibrate, and test all types of industrial valves, including overhaul and recertification, consultancy and training to support Nigeria’s energy sector.
With a total floor area of 1,293 square meters, the valves and automation center is also suitable for automation and control, as well as electrical and instrumentation operations. It is designed with strict adherents to all HSE building requirements. The second workshop has been designated for metering assembly and calibration operations.
Due to the use of cranes within the workshops, the overall room height for the workshop is 10.85 meters. This workshop also includes a calibration room, a canteen, storage rooms, offices and meeting rooms.
The service building has a footprint of 328 square meters and is dedicated to the energy power station and waste management for the entire premises. This warehouse the service workstations and maintenance areas transformers, storage tanks and generators. The service access control building, which is completely different from the service building and covers an area of 285 square meters has the sole purpose of controlling access to the service areas.
The entire facility utilizes high precision CCTV cameras, perimeter lightening systems systems, multiple water tanks and hydrants and the fire water pump allowing the company to minimize operational risks and ensure the safety of staff.
According to Akobo the center is a fulfillment of a lifetime dream.
“What we intend to do is to fill the gap that exists in the country. What I mean is that the country has an integration gap in the facility side of the business.
“A number of people that are doing welding work, a number of people that are doing chiseling work, a number of people that are doing civil engineering work, but this the heart of the final control element.
“What this place is to do is civil engineering work, this is the heart of final control elements. This centre is designed to have full integration, from the wellhead all the way to the pipeline.
“We do not drill for oil, but when the wells are drilled and the oil and gas coming in, they pass through a choke and provide the valves. Then, they go through a high integrity protection system, then into the pipelines. When it is in the pipeline, we measure the gas or any leaks. It’s not just about measurement, it is about looking at total quality,” explained Akobo.
According to Wabote, who performed the official launch of the facility, Akobo has made PE Energy an exemplary part of the NCDMB programme, ensuring not only strict compliance with all applicable laws and directives, but setting the bar even higher through the construction of the facility.
“Entering this arena, looking at the way this place is set up, I sincerely believe that none of the International Oil Companies (IOCs) operating in Nigeria will have any doubt that if they give an assignment to PE Energy, it would produce the same quality that you see even outside the country today,” said Wabote.
Benefits to Nigeria’s oil sector
Daere Akobo
Akobo, with a degree in Applied Physics, and an alumnus of the Harvard Business School, the INSEAD Business School among others has brought to the facility construction over two decades of experience in the energy sector spanning across electrical instrumentation, mitigation and monitoring, flow measurement, sales and procurement.
This informs his conviction that the facility will have enormous benefits for the country.
“We would not be able to solve the problem of vandalisation, but we would account for the losses. We would be able to talk about the location of the vandalisation.
“We are providing the technology for hydrocarbon accounting. It’s more like in the electrical system. We called it the morale testers. In the instrumentation world, we have acquired a technology leak detection technology with very non-intrusive methodology.
Akobo said the early detection will contribute to cost savings and reduce environmental degradation.
“You cannot put a value to environmental degradation because the earlier you understand that leak and the location of the leak, then you arrest the leak and contain the leak. So, that’s a high value,” he said.
Domesticating these solutions, Akobo said will cut cost for companies who had to import them by removing duties, reduce wait time cause a multiplier effect including job creation and stimulating the local economy as suppliers and vendors will seek to provide services to the facility.
“Currently, we employ over 100 people across Port Harcourt, Lagos and Abuja, and with this facility, we are ramping up to 200,” he said.
