Four Nigerian petroleum engineers have appealed to the
Federal Government to encourage the participation of indigenous engineering
companies in the oil and gas sector by awarding them contracts.

The engineers who are all company executives in Port
Harcourt, spoke with The Tide  at the
venue of the ongoing Society of Petroleum Engineers Conference and Exhibition
in Lagos.

According to them, many companies have closed down because
the government had failed to patronise them.

Mr Solomon Ewanehi, the Managing Director of Solewant
Nigeria Limited, noted that the government’s patronage of indigenous oil and
gas companies was low, regretted that the government preferred to patronise
foreign companies to the detriment of the local ones.

“Government often brings expatriates to do most of our jobs
whereas Nigeria has the best and competent petroleum engineering companies that
can do the job perfectly.

“There are some of our counterparts from abroad coming to
the country to do the job that we are supposed to do in the country,’’ he said.

According to Ewanehi, local firms are always sad to see
expatriates doing the jobs they can do.

“The only way for government to help the indigenous
companies to grow is by giving most of these jobs to local companies,” he said.

Mr Matthew Okoro, Managing Director of Well Fluid Services
limited said the government should urge banks to grant loans to indigenous
companies to finance their projects.

Okoro observed  that
inadequate funding by banks had contributed to the collapse of most indigenous
companies, and  advised the organisers of
the conference to create more space for indigenous companies to exhibit their
products in future exhibitions.

Another exhibitor, Mr Isaac Ejuomah of B.G Technical
limited., urged government at all levels to encourage indigenous participation
in the oil and gas sector.

He said that this was one of the ways to encourage
indigenous participation in the nation’s affairs.