CEO of the South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Dr. Thackwray Driver presenting a token to His Excellency John Dramani Mahama, Vice President of the Republic of Ghana during the STCIC's recent Energy Services Trade Mission to Nigeria and Ghana. Also in picture Dr the Honourable Kwabena Donkor, Deputy Minister of Energy (Oil and Gas)
Exporting Energy Services to Nigeria and Ghana
The South Trinidad Chamber of Industry and Commerce has just returned from a very successful two week Energy Services Trade Mission to Nigeria and Ghana. A total of nine Trinidad & Tobago energy services companies made the trip to explore business opportunities, make contacts with potential local partners and generally assess the environment for doing business. We were afforded a very warm welcome in both Nigeria and in Ghana and there is clearly a high degree of interest and respect for what Trinidad & Tobago has managed to achieve in the energy sector, in particular with the monetisation of natural gas. This interest is beginning to form the kernel of a "national brand" for our energy industry that will be hugely beneficial to our exporters as we move into new markets.
Companies that participated in the STCIC Trade Mission to Nigeria and Ghana:
(1) Association of Caribbean Energy Specialists
(2) Capital Signal Company Ltd
(3) E.A.R.T.H
(4) Hull Support Services Ltd
(5) IAL Engineering
(6) Professional Petroleum Services Ltd
(7) South M Construction
(8) TOSL Engineering
(9) Trinidad Offshore Fabricators (TOFCO)
The Nigerian and Ghanaian markets both offer significant opportunities but are very different.
Despite all of the problems associated with the oil industry in Nigeria it still offers a huge opportunity for business. While the international media is full of stories of militants and violence the reality on the ground is that a large number of international and Nigeria companies are continuing to do significant business in the country and making significant profits. The thing that struck all members of the mission was the sheer size of the Nigerian industry and the Nigerian population. The country has official population figures of over 150 million people, but everyone believes that these figures are grossly understated. While Lagos is widely known to be a massive city with a huge population, even the oil town of Port Harcourt has a population many multiples larger than Trinidad & Tobago.
Given the size of the Nigerian oil and gas industry and the strict rules on local content in place in Nigeria, most Trinidad & Tobago companies will have to access the market primarily through partnership or joint venture agreements with Nigerian companies. In this regard the partnership established between the Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (PHCCIMA) and the STCIC proved to be a useful vehicle for establishing relationships and developing partnerships between Trinidad & Tobago and Nigerian companies. We were afforded a very warm and hospitable welcome by the PHCIMA and their President Prince Billy Gillis-Harry in particular and a number of the companies involved in the mission made some very important contacts and developed relationships that we fully expect to result in business.
The other extremely useful set of relationships for Trinidad & Tobago companies is the Trinidadians already working in Nigeria, some of them in very senior positions in international companies based in Nigeria. This network of Trinidad & Tobago nationals in Nigeria and elsewhere in the global energy industry is a very important asset for this country and one that should be more fully utilised as we seek to diversify Trinidad & Tobago's service exports.
Ghana presents a very different set of opportunities to Nigeria. The country is a very new entrant to the oil and gas industry and the major development underway is the huge new Jubilee oil and gas field in deepwater off Ghana's south western coast. Ghana offers one of the most stable and investor friendly business environments in Africa, with a good macro-economic performance and an established multi-party democratic system. The country has implemented a wide range of fiscal and administrative measures to attract direct foreign investment and build confidence in the investor community.
Given this friendly business environment and the prospects offered by the new oil and gas industry, foreign investment is clearly being attracted to Ghana - as the number of new international hotels being built in Accra clearly indicates.
Members of the Trade Mission were again given an extremely warm welcome in both Accra and in the city of Sekondi-Takoradi, where the shore-base for the off-shore development work is based. Given the fast-track development and deepwater environment for the Jubilee field, immediate business opportunities for Trinidad & Tobago companies in that particular development are somewhat limited. However, there are very strong prospects for Trinidad & Tobago companies in the development of the proposed pipelines to bring gas on-shore and the related facilities around that. In addition there are a number of prospective shallower oil and gas reservoirs which will provide excellent opportunities for Trinidad & Tobago companies. While it is early days for the industry in Ghana there are clearly huge opportunities.
As in Nigeria, local Ghanaian industry and the public sector were extremely interested in the Trinidad & Tobago experience in developing our gas industry. This reputation of excellence for the gas industry is clearly something that helps build our national brand and helps boost our business prospects. The strong historical links between West Africa and the Caribbean are also important for the business relationships and many people in both countries see the possibilities of "South-South trade" as being important to their economic development.
Public - Private collaboration
The Energy Services Trade Mission received excellent support from the Government of Trinidad & Tobago and is a good example of how the public and private sectors can collaborate for the overall development of Trinidad & Tobago. We were accompanied through-out the two weeks by Her Excellency Victoria Mendes Charles, Trinidad & Tobago's High Commissioner to Nigeria and Ghana, and received excellent support from the High Commissioner's office. Funding support was also received from the Ministry of Trade and Industry and the mission was initially made possible through the contacts built up during various visits under the Prime Minister's Africa Energy Initiative and the work of the Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries. During the Nigerian visit we received significant support from His Excellency Musa John, the Nigerian High Commissioner to Trinidad & Tobago, and for the Ghanaian leg of the mission, from Mr Hilton John Mitchell, the Trinidad & Tobago Honorary Counsel to Ghana.
The strong Government backing for our Trade Mission was extremely important for gaining access to key decision-makers and underlines the important role to be played by our overseas diplomatic missions in diversifying our exports. The STCIC's Nigerian and Ghanaian Energy Services Trade Mission has set a new benchmark for out-going Trade Missions and we, and our partners in Government, are going to have to work very hard in the future to live up to these new expectations from our members.
For further information on the Energy Service Trade Mission please contact Priya Marajh at priya@stcic.org or 652-5613
