Themes: 

• (A) The Role Of Surveying In Dredging And Field Measurements In Nigeria
• (B) Dredging For The Environment

Venue: Amber Tinapa Resort, Calabar, Cross River State
Date: 22 - 24, September 2010
Time: 10.00a.m. - 4.00p.m. daily

Special Exhibitors: 

• Italdraghe SpA, Italy
• Pioneer Equipment USA
• Anolgas Nigeria Ltd
• Pioneer Equipment USA

Special Topics: 

• "The environmental interface between dredging, maritime and oil field operations" by Prof. Akintonwa Alade
• "How Surveying Will Solve Calabar River Dredging Project" by Prof P C Nwilo
• A lecture by Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron on "Training Profiles for the Marine Industry".
• Other topics and lectures will be delivered by other resource persons and Participating Agencies / Companies
• Special Tours  45-minute Boat Tour to the Calabar River Dredging Site
• 35-minute  Group Visit by Boat to Maritime Academy of Nigeria Oron Campus

Cost of Exhibition

• Booths:  $750.00 per booth (3m x 3m). Double booths can be ordered
• Attendance fee:  N75,000.00 ($500.00) per delegates

Organiser: Dredge Skills & Marine Training Centre Ltd. RC 739532
Contact: Contact: Suite E.187, Ikota Plaza, VGC, P.O. Box 37, Ajah. Lekki Lagos Nigeria
Telephone: +234 1 7928166; +234 (0)803 337 8735
Email: dredgeskills@gmail.com
Web: www.ddhmag.com

More Details: Press Release

The 4th edition of the Nigerian Dredging Summit and Exhibition will hold in Calabar at the Amber Tinapa Resort in September 2010 and will feature two major boat tours to the River Cross and the campus of Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron.

The River Cross is the channel that leads to the high sea from the Calabar port and has been involved in some complex dredging operations for many years now. The campus of the Maritime Academy of Nigeria at Oron hosts one of the maritime rescue centres recognized by the Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA) as reporting nerve for all maritime incidents along the coast line. When fully operational, it should also host a coastal radio station needed for such reportage.

Delegates to this year's dredging summit and exhibition will be taken on special luxury ferries to have a first-hand look at these sites and institutions where activities that impinge on dredging, maritime, oil and gas and environmental issues are dealt with. The River Cross is particularly important because being 84 nautical miles, it was given to two dredging companies, Van Oord and Jan de Nul, in the last dredging campaign, but operational governance issues prevented a successful completion of the project. That governance issue has to do with surveys and field measurement of the removed spoil from the sea bed and in this year's dredging summit, eminent professor of surveying and geoinformatics, Prof P.C. Nwilo of the University of Lagos, will tackle the question in a Powerpoint presentation titled "The Role of Surveys in Dredging and Field Measurements : A case study of the Calabar dredging campaign".

On the other hand, the question of environmental interface between dredging, maritime and oil field operations will also be treated at this summit. Foremost authority on the subject and professor of toxicology, remediation and ecodredging, Prof Akintonwa Alade, will take up the issue of the interplay between the elements whenever dredging activities have to take place in the oil fields. It will be recalled that in most oil fields, well-head sweeping operations take place regularly, sometimes daily. Shell (SPDC), for example, says that up to 65% of its operations in green and brown fields require one level of dredging or the other annually. In view of local laws and international norms, the issue of compliance for the health of the environment cannot be over-emphasised. Therefore the second main theme of the dredging summit and exhibition in Calabar is "Dredging for the Environment".

All observers of the Nigerian industry will agree as to the existence of legacy issues of oil pollution and land degradation being fallouts of oil exploration and exploitation activities in the fifty odd years since Nigeria has been involved in the hydrocarbon extraction business. The oil majors and other IOCs take a front seat when it comes to a resolution of these issues and the regulatory agencies, mainly DPR and the NOSDRA, will keep a watchful eye. These agencies are being invited to join the seminars that will take place at the dredging summit and to furnish the delegates with updated views of laws, regulations, notices and other resources being marshaled by government and the private sector to keep one step ahead of compliance and remediation issues.

Being maritime environmental and safety issues, the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA) usually attends the dredging summit. At Calabar, expectations are high that NIMASA will bring up the ante in these areas but also concerning cabotage law enforcement and benefits. As is widely known in the industry, the cabotage law seeks to restricts haulage for oil and gas and inland waterways transportation businesses to Nigerian firms. For this purpose, it also has the Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund (CVFF) to give to local entrepreneurs in the areas of offshore transport for crews and materiel, as well as for boat building, ship repair yards and ancillary businesses. The agency is also heavily recruiting able-bodied young men and women into Nigeria?s seafarer population. In fact, the 3-day Calabar dredging summit and exhibition will be used by the agency to push these issues and to make presentations.

The Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA) and its joint venture partners and consultants, Lagos Channel Management, Bonny Channel Management and CARES (UK) also made a robust participation in last year's summit and exhibition at Abuja. Most of the seaports and terminals in Nigeria have NPA as the landlord and with its joint ventures have succeeded to keep the channels open to better shipping navigation round the year. They are also expected in Calabar since the channel will also be furnished with a channel management company once successfully dredged for smoother navigation by big ships. In this connection, the Cross River State government shares the dream with NPA that the Calabar should be facilitated to receive bigger ships for the turnaround of the economy of the state. In view of this, the state government is being invited as a partner in this year?s dredging summit and exhibition.

Many government departments, agencies and parastatals coming to the dredging summit will man their own booths where they will show videos, dispense flyers and forms, take up enquiries and generally reach out to the operators both from the Niger Delta states and from delegates from across the federation and overseas. Overseas interest in the Nigerian Dredging Summit series has been rising since its debut in 2007. Last year, Damen Dredging Equipment of Netherlands, Cosben Equipment of Italy, Pioneer Equipment of USA and Nationwide Equipment attended the Nigerian Dredging Summit and Exhibition in Abuja. This year, we expect their repeat attendance but Italdradghe of Italy and Anolgas Equipment have already booked spaces for attendance and exhibition at Calabar.

Again, last year there was a conspicuous absence by the dredging contractors working on the River Niger dredging campaign despite encouragement from the federal ministry of transport to showcase their expertise at the event. This gave many delegates the feeling that the dredging campaign was not transparent and the contractors were trying to hide their activities from scrutiny by those who should know enough to ask intelligent questions. Otherwise in all jurisdictions across the world, events like the Nigerian Dredging Summit and Exhibition are forums for dredging contractors and consultants who are confident of their products and services to showcase them for all to see and to even gain new customers. This year we expect these dredge contractors to show up and make presentations.

Another side attraction of the 4th Nigerian dredging summit and exhibition is the location: Amber Tinapa Resort. So much has been said about this resort that many people would love to have a feel of the place. The organizers of the dredging summit have entered into discussions with the management of the resort to get special room rates for all delegates going to the event. With the evidence of registration for the dredging summit delegates will get very big rebates on rooms, and other services are being looked into as well. These special rebates, if requested well in advance, can be arranged to apply for the whole week of the event though the event will last for only three days.

Copies of lectures and presentations will be made available to delegates in CDs and other electronic formats and certificates of attendance for delegates and certificates of participation for companies will be given at the end of the event. Further details can be accessed at the organiser's website, www.ddhmag.com.