Merger, a viable option to drilling contractors—-Ashley Dejo

&NewLine;<p>For more&NewLine;liquidity and sustainability&comma; merger and acquisition has been recommended for drilling&NewLine;operators in the downstream sector of the oil and gas industry&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This advise&NewLine;was handed down by Rotimi Ashley Dejo at the Nigeria Chapter 2019 HSE Awards&NewLine;and Technical Session of the International Association Drilling Contractors &comma;&NewLine;IADC which held in Lagos&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Ashley&comma; a&NewLine;retired drilling engineer with 21 unbroken years with Chevron&comma; now Chief&NewLine;Executive Girafit Venture&comma; technically exposed the ills and challenges bedeviling&NewLine;in the area of personnel training&comma; unfriendly regulation&comma; pollution&comma; well control&NewLine;and continuous rise in the development and implementation of new cutting edge&NewLine;technologies<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Many&NewLine;companies have their own internal WC policies and standards&comma; which are often&NewLine;more stringent than the minimum regulatory stipulation&quest; &nbsp&semi;Some companies only meet the lowest requirement&NewLine;of the regulators &lpar;or their client&rpar; and if not adequately audited&comma; will flout&NewLine;the minimum requirements routinely&period; &nbsp&semi;How&NewLine;many companies validate their WC &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;battle readiness” as a matter of routine&quest; For&NewLine;example&comma; do you audit your shut-in readiness by conducting pit&sol;trip drills&quest;”He&NewLine;asked&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>To address&NewLine;these challenges in an industry that has over 200 wells within the association&NewLine;that targets an increased membership to 32 by year end&comma; Ashley advised merger&NewLine;as an option&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For instance&comma;&NewLine;he explained that at one time&comma; Chevron lost &dollar;104 million in drilling without&NewLine;result and asked &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;how can a local contractor cope with such expense&quest; Local operators&NewLine;do not have money like the IOC&comma; therefore coming together with strong financial&NewLine;muscle for accurate data collection and &nbsp&semi;training&NewLine;can help to brace up with the hi tech challenges in the industry&period;” <&sol;p>&NewLine;