Port Harcourt ELF Nigeria Limited has promised to end gas flaring in all its operations in the country from December this year when work on its Amenam Kpono project phase II would have been completed. The company said already the bridge, which would convey gas from the phase one of the Amenam Kpono project was about 99% completed.

Giving details yesterday at Saipem yard in Port Harcourt after conducting newsmen round, Engineer Patrick Ngene said the phase one of the project came on stream since 1993. And currently about one thousand barrel of oil daily. He said the phase two when ready would begin to ship gas from the phase one to the NLNG Bonny for monetisation.

He said fittings like electric cables, pipelines; instrument lines etc had been done on the bridge. He said about 42% of the engineering work was local input while the construction was entirely local content.

Stressing that the project would end gas flaring in all its operations Engr Patrick said the company had reduced gas flaring to about 80%. He said the Amenam Kpolo project phase two would ship gas to train six.

The bridge weighs 750 tons and the length is 93.5 mtrs. Width is 6 mtrs and the height is 10 metrs. A statement later from the company reads," The Bridge that you saw is part of the big AKOGEP II project, made up of a process platform AMP1, a Drilling platform AMD3. And the jackets for AMP II and AMD3 The Bridge links AMP2 to an older platform AMP1 that formed part of the first phase of the project.

AMD3 platform was built in Warri, Nigeria. The jackets and the Bridge were also built in Nigeria.

·AMP1/AMP2 interconnecting process bridge, also has the following functions- transfer of gas to be treated on AMP2, exported to NLNG, - transfer of water to be boosted on AMP2 and injected in reservoir, - sharing of utilities between AMP1 and AMP2, - transfer of personnel,

· The bridge weighs 607 tons·

In terms of size, the bridge is 93m long / 6m wide / 10m height.

· There are 22 pipelines connecting AMP1 and AMP2

· In terms of Nigerian Content, 700,000 man-hours of work were done in Nigeria, about 100-120 Nigerians working during peak period.

· All shop drawings which formed a substantial part of the Detailed design were done in Nigeria, among others.

· There were also subcontracts for hydro tests, inspection to Nigerian subcontractors,

One major milestone on this project is that, for the first time, AMP2 piles (2,000 tons) were rolled in SAIPEM yard in Nigeria, increasing the Nigerian content and leading to costs savings (transportation of steel plates instead of cans).

EPNL considers this a major achievement for the government Nigerian Content policy, in that it not only generated a lot of employment in country, but also contributed to capacity development of sub-contractors.