1. ADVERTORIALPROFILEINTELS
I
ntels Nigeria is firmly established as a
major force in West Africa’s oil and gas,
project and heavy lift cargo, integrated
logistics, port operations and camp
facilities sectors.
The company operates the world’s largest
oil and gas free zone, at Onne; it owns
probably the largest harbour mobile crane in
the whole of Africa; it has offered cargo
handling and support services to the oil and
gas industry for nearly 30 years; and it holds
25-year concessions for its port operations at
Onne, Warri and Calabar, with an option to
extend for a further 25 years.
The strength of Intels’ position in its
various markets is clear, but it is determined to
continue developing its influence, based on
further major investments and a proactive
approach to the market.
Intels Nigeria Ltd was established in the
early 1980s with a vision to develop integrated
logistics solutions – offering a complete
package of facilities and services to the oil and
gas industry in Nigeria. The story began at the
Onne Port Complex, where earlier foreign
contractors had abandoned construction due
to non-payment of fees by the federal
government of the time.
The Nigerian Ports Authority invited the
private sector to operate at the Federal Lighter
Terminal (FLT), the only partly completed
facility at the complex, and Intels took up the
challenge.
“When our founders started the company,
they found nothing but 100 m of jetty and
pilings left by the previous operator – now we
have developed more than four kilometres of
jetty,” said Sascha Kuehl, general manager
operations.
A, Warri Old Port, Warri New Port, and
Calabar New Port Terminal A.
Last year, Intels took delivery of a Liebherr
LHM 600. Believed to be the largest mobile
harbour crane in Africa, it has a maximum lift
capacity of 208 tonnes at 17 m outreach. Based
at the Onne facility, it is vital to Intels’ heavy
lift and project cargo handling ambitions.
Intels’ operational fleet today consists of 65
cranes, of between 30 tonnes and 250 tonnes,
plus a variety of other handling equipment
including 115 forklifts in the range of three
tonnes to 40 tonnes, including two new
Liebherr RST645 reachstackers and several
pipe handlers and top loaders. A total of 87
new trucks plus 60 terminal tractors,
including a brand new hybrid model, are
ensuring operational excellence at the highest
standards. Through its joint venture partners,
Intels also has other specialised equipment
including 178 Goldhofer modular heavy-duty
axle lines at its disposal.
With its oil and gas bases at Onne, Warri
and Calabar, and its long experience, Intels is
established as a leading supplier of oil and gas
logistic support services in Nigeria. It has
pioneered the concept of a one-stop-shop oil
service centre, and the free zone status of
Onne, and tomorrow Warri offers clients and
tenants very specific and considerable
advantages in terms of tax, duty and
employment requirements.
No doubt the signing of a long-term
concession has given the company the
confidence to take a more proactive approach
to the ‘outside’ market, too. “We are looking
to reach out to our clients – instead of waiting
for cargo to come to us, we are actively
offering door-to-door logistics solutions
where we will pick up the item from the
factory and take it to the site where it is
needed, taking care of everything, including
shipping and port operations, etc,” said Kuehl.
To pursue this, Intels Nigeria has entered
an alliance with the NVOCC (non vessel
As well as the jetty constructions at Onne,
with the depth alongside ranging between
eight and 12 m, the company’s investments
have so far provided more then
five million sq m of industrial, stacking and
storage areas. Major investments were
undertaken to reach compliance with the
International Ship and Port Facility Security
(ISPS) Code at the company’s various sites,
said Kuehl.
Then, in 2006, Intels was awarded 25-year
concessions by the Bureau of Public
Enterprises and the Nigerian Ministry of
Transport, through the Nigerian Port
Authority, with an option to extend for
another 25 years.
The concessions were for Nigeria’s five
designated Oil and Gas Cargo Ports; Federal
Lighter Terminal B, Federal Ocean Terminal
New Partners MGM Lines and
Worldwide Premier Logistics “both
have heavy lift capabilities and
equipment, so we can now offer a
door-to-door package and handle
heavy lift to a greater extent than
before”.
– Sascha Kuehl, Intels Nigeria
July/August 2010 www.heavyliftpfi.com114
Intels Nigeria may operate the world’s largest oil and gas free
zone, and have a wide range of achievements under its belt, but
it plans to continue developing, writes Felicity Landon.
Intels Nigeria:
a major force

2. ADVERTORIALPROFILEINTELS
operating common carrier) MGM Lines and
Worldwide Premier Logistics to offer a
door-to-door logistics package.
“These two partners both have heavy lift
capabilities and equipment, so we can now
offer a door-to-door package and handle
heavy lift to a greater extent than before,” he
said. “This alliance is taking off. In the past,
most of our heavy lifts were offshore related.
But when looking at the Nigerian local
content bill, which was signed recently by the
Nigerian government, we are definitely
expecting to do more with our partners and
build our expertise in this area.”
The long-term port concessions also
FOT, FLT and the jetty areas; in a new main
access control point; in a new water network
for the terminals; and in additional lighting,
drainage and security features. Plans include
the construction of berths 9, 10 and 11 at
FOT, as well as a ro-ro berthing facility.
Free zone advantages
More than 150 private investors and registered
companies are present in the oil and gas free
zone at the Onne port complex operated by
Intels Nigeria. They include international oil
producing companies, financial and technical
companies, and shipping companies, plus the
whole range of technology, equipment,
support and supply companies serving the oil
and gas sector.
The Onne facility was a ‘first’ for Africa
and it is the fastest growing dedicated oil and
gas free zone in the world.
The combination of Intels’ concession
status, allowing it to handle import and export
cargoes, and the free zone status of the facility,
provide a special advantage for customers.
“The situation in Nigeria before we started
operating was that the material was imported
into a port, then it had to be transported to the
private base of an oil company, for example; so
everybody had to have their own base and
there was a lot of double handling,” said
Kuehl. “But our terminals are licensed
customs ports and we are a service centre
within the port. So we receive cargo and store
it and load it out when the time comes,
offering the benefit of joint terminal operator
and supply base operator.”
Free zone status gives users significant tax,
VAT and employment incentives. Any quota
restrictions do not apply while goods remain
in the free zone. This means that clients can
use Onne as a regional development centre,
and any cargo stored there is not eligible for
import duty because the zone is fiscally
separate to Nigeria.
“Clients can build up stock, equipment,
etc, and then pay the duty only as they import
from the zone into Nigeria,” explained Kuehl.
The free zone also offers benefits relating to
employment and ‘added value’ or processing
type work. Recent legislation requires
development of Nigerian content in the
Nigerian oil and gas industry, which means that
a certain percentage of work must be done in
the country and by Nigerians. But operations
in the free zone are excluded from any
expatriate quota. There are also rules on what
work can be done overseas and what must be
done in Nigeria. For example, pipes that were
provide immense benefit to Intels’ clients,
both present and future, as there is long-term
security for their investment.
Investment has continued apace at all the
port facilities, with the most recent projects
formally commissioned by Nigeria’s
president, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, in
May this year. These included berths 4, 5 and
6 at Federal Ocean Terminal (FOT) –
providing an additional 750 m of quay, with
12 m draught and substantial dedicated heavy
lift provision, and the 376 m berth 4 at the
FLT, constructed entirely on virgin swamp,
both at Onne Port Complex. Intels has also
invested substantially in new roads to serve
www.heavyliftpfi.com July/August 2010 115
Intels has handled project cargoes for the Escravos Gas-to-Liquid
plant with a million man-hours LTI-free (Lost Time Incident-free).
Intels’ equipment pool include six 130 tonne hydraulic cranes.
Intels Onne Federal Ocean Terminal.
Last year Intels took delivery of a Liebherr LHM 600 crane for
its Onne Oil & Gas Free Zone.

3. ADVERTORIALPROFILEINTELS
in human resources development in Rivers/
Bayelsa State, by Nigeria’s leading training
institution, Industrial Training Fund. The
presentation was made at the company’s new
corporate head office at the Onne Port
Complex.
Where next?
Where does Intels go next? It is operating the
biggest oil and gas free zone in the world and
the biggest oil and gas centre, with the Intels
Group in total employing about 14,000
people. It has the huge advantage of holding
long-term concessions from the NPA, which
gives it the licence to handle import and
export cargoes.
It has benefited from the moves to
streamline port rate structures in Nigeria, so
that there is now an industry-wide standard
tariff, fully transparent and
government-regulated. Intels was a pioneer in
its fields of activity in Nigeria, and now
benefits from nearly 30 years’ experience. And
it has plans to build new berths at Onne and to
extend free zone status to its facilities at Warri.
“Our strategy moving forward is to reach
out and attract tonnage, to make the most of
our new alliance, to offer the full range of
top-quality services, and to continue to
develop additional quayside and stacking
areas, and make the road for anybody
interested to invest in Nigeria,” said Kuehl.
“Proven oil and gas resources in Nigeria
put this country in the top seven resources in
the world, so definitely Nigeria and this
continent have a big future. Definitely there
will be the need for logistics operators such as
Intels.” HLPFI
with its commercial facilities at Aba Road
Estate (Port Harcourt), Heliconia Park (Port
Harcourt), Onne Estate, and Warri Estate;
these provide secure, reliable and high-quality
accommodation and amenities for its
customers and own expat employees, as
required. Major oil producing companies
such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and Total have
described the estates – which consist of over
1,500 units of apartments and houses ranging
from one bedroom apartments of 55 sq m to
250 sq m houses – as “safe havens”, thanks to
extremely stringent security measures.
As well as accommodation, the estates
provide clinics, restaurants, sports and leisure
facilities, supermarkets, and other amenities
for residents.
Intels’ core values are: treating everyone
with honesty, fairness and respect; conducting
its business with the highest level of integrity;
and open, informal communications, hard
work and prudent financial management.
In April 2010, for the third year running,
the company was awarded the best employer
July/August 2010 www.heavyliftpfi.com116
previously coated before being shipped into the
country must now be coated in Nigeria.
“The advantage in the free zone is that 150
companies are offering a very wide range of
services – including processing, manufacture,
assembly, etc. People have to comply with the
law but they can come to Intels and have the
service they require provided in Nigeria,” said
Kuehl. “For example, we have a shipyard in
the free zone, and other services include
pipecoating, machine shops and waste
management, and we are continuing to
develop land for us to be able to invite and
host other business such as fabrication yards,
spool bases and pipe mills, etc.”
As well as transit and supply operations
and cargo handling services, the oil and gas
bases offer quayside space for supply vessels
and oceangoing vessels, open pipe racks,
offices and warehouses, workshop facilities,
freshwater, a telecoms centre, agency services,
data processing, and materials stock control.
“Today we are handling an average of 30 PSVs
(platform support vessels) per day, 365 days in
a year,” said Kuehl.
“Intels provides the facilities, the
equipment and the personnel to manage and
supervise the logistics requirements of the oil
producing, service and project companies,”
said Kuehl. “This concept gives logistic
assistance from the arrival of cargo through
the stacking/racking stage to final delivery of
materials, to the designated transport –
support vessel, barge or truck.”
‘Safe havens’
Intels Nigeria today employs about 5,000
people, including around 80 expatriate staff.
This figure does not include the activities of
the Intel Group’s accommodation business,
which is run by a separate subsidiary, or
various joint ventures.
Intels operates residential estates along
Onne Oil & Gas Free
Zone Complex with the
Camp and Intels Federal
Lighter Terminal (FLT) on
the left and Federal
Ocean Terminal (FOT) on
the right.
A riser, typically used in oil
well drilling operations,
seen at the Onne Federal
Ocean Terminal.