Sanwo-Olu commends NNPC, Total, others over Oxygen Plant

Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, has lauded Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Limited, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and their operating partners, Sapetro, CNOOC, and Prime, over their donation of a medical oxygen plant to the state.

Sanwo-Olu gave the commendation while inaugurating the facility sited at the Gbagada General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos State.

The governor said the plant which has the capacity to produce 100 bottles of oxygen per day was the biggest of such plant to be inaugurated in the state.

Sanwo-Olu said: “I also want to commend Total/NNPC and their partners for putting together this Oxygen plant here. I have been informed that this facility has the capacity to produce a hundred bottles of oxygen per day. It is much bigger than the one commissioned earlier on.

“Total and its partners deserve a round of applause. I want to put it on record that we continue to acknowledge all the various support that we have received from Total.

“I am aware that at the height of the COVID-19, when we were high on the storm, a lot of resources were also supplied and donated by Total Nigeria; both PLC and Total Upstream. Thank you very much,” Sanwo-Olu said.

Earlier, the Managing Director of Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria, Mr. Mike Sangster, who was represented by the Deputy Managing Director, Deep Water, Mr. Victor Bandele, explained why Total and its partners embarked on the project.

According to Sangster, “The COVID-19 pandemic simply made an already bad situation much worse. As the number of cases spiked, with Lagos as the epicenter, we decided that building and donating a medical oxygen plant would not only help improve the state’s capacity to care for COVID-19 patients, but could further strengthen Lagos’s ability to manage other conditions associated with oxygen deficiency.

“So, in collaboration with the Lagos Ministry of Health and our partners- NNPC, CNOOC, SAPETRO, and PRIME 130, we decided to build and donate this medical oxygen plant to help meet some of our medical oxygen needs in the state. We believe that this facility would be useful even beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.”

He pointed out that the government of Nigeria had, in its National Policy on Medical Oxygen in health facilities, expressed great concern over high rates of death due to lack of access to oxygen in the nation’s hospitals.

On his part, the Group General Manager, National Petroleum Investment Management Services (NAPIMS), Mr. Bala Wunti, represented by the General Manager, Services, NAPIMS, Mr. Yunusa Yahaya Jibril, said the NNPC had brought together all stakeholders in the industry to collaborate in the fight against the pandemic with the country as a constituency not just operational areas of the oil companies, in the fight against the pandemic.