Nov 12, 2026
The West African Gas Pipeline Company Limited (WAPCo) has recorded approximately 14 million man-hours without a recordable injury involving its employees and contractors, reinforcing its commitment to workplace safety and operational excellence.
The company disclosed this at its contractors’ engagement forum, which brought together about 150 existing and prospective contractors to discuss operational expectations, safety standards, procurement procedures and opportunities for stronger collaboration.
WAPCo’s Managing Director, Mr Abbey Abodunrin, said the company regarded contractors not merely as service providers but as business partners whose success was closely linked to its overall performance.
He explained that the engagement was designed to strengthen collaboration and reinforce the principle that safety was a shared responsibility among WAPCo, its contractors and other stakeholders operating across the sub-region.
“We treat contractors as part of our workers. It matters to us that everyone who comes to work, whether employees or contractors, goes back home exactly the way they came to work,” the company stated.
WAPCo disclosed that its safety performance had surpassed 12 years and 14 million workforce hours without a recordable injury, describing the achievement as the outcome of sustained discipline, deliberate interventions and strict adherence to its safety and operational management systems.
It, however, cautioned against complacency, stressing that sustaining the milestone required continuous vigilance, collaboration and proper management of high-consequence risks.
The company explained that its management system covers occupational health and safety, process safety, operational reliability, environmental performance, security and stakeholder relations. It acknowledged contractors’ contributions to its safety performance and urged them to maintain the highest standards in executing their assignments.
The forum, according to the company, also provides an avenue to communicate its expectations on health, safety and environmental standards while enabling contractors to seek clarification, raise concerns and provide feedback on areas requiring improvement.
On procurement, WAPCo said contractors must first satisfy established safety and technical requirements before their commercial proposals are evaluated.
It emphasised that value for money remained central to its procurement decisions, noting that technically competent contractors were expected to submit competitive bids to secure business opportunities.
“We only pay for value. Anybody who is technically competent to do the job must be the one who gives us the most competitive rate because, as an organisation, we have to ensure that we are getting value for money,” a company representative said.
The company clarified that providing financing assistance to contractors was not part of its business model but reaffirmed its commitment to developing local content and expanding indigenous participation across its operations.
According to the representative, WAPCo deliberately encourages local contractors in all four countries where it operates as part of its commitment to regional integration. However, contractors seeking opportunities across national borders must comply with the relevant regulatory requirements, including obtaining the necessary permits and operating licences in their destination countries.
On operational efficiency, the company highlighted its adoption of digital technologies to simplify contractor management and improve internal processes.
It disclosed that a digital work permit system had been introduced to replace the traditional paper-based approval process for high-risk activities within its facilities. The platform is expected to accelerate applications and approvals while reducing delays associated with the movement of physical documents between departments.
WAPCo has also deployed a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system to integrate contractor management and financial processes on a single platform.
Although the implementation has presented some initial challenges, the company said it was engaging contractors to address their concerns and improve familiarity with the system.
The integrated platform is expected to enhance efficiency in contract administration, documentation and contractor payments.
The company also expressed its readiness to embrace artificial intelligence (AI), recognising its growing influence on the oil and gas industry and its potential to improve productivity and business performance.
According to the representative, AI offers opportunities to improve data analysis, accelerate decision-making and enhance existing business processes.
WAPCo expects its new ERP platform, alongside Microsoft’s expanding AI capabilities, to provide additional tools for data interpretation, productivity improvement and operational efficiency.
“We are constantly looking at how we adopt AI into our business. It helps us analyse data better and improves efficiency. It enables us to do things we have been doing in the past much better and faster,” the representative said.
He added that the company’s ambition was to leverage technology to achieve more with fewer resources while sustaining operational excellence.
Also speaking, WAPCo’s Head of Environment and Safety, Oluyemisi Ojo, said the forum would address key areas of operational excellence, including contractor onboarding, frontline supervision, work completion and documentation, contractor ethics, and the ongoing transition to the Microsoft Dynamics ERP system.
Ojo attributed the company’s safety performance to lessons learnt from previous incidents, particularly a fatal accident in Ghana in 2012 during pipeline repair operations, which claimed the lives of two workers.
He said the incident had a profound human and organisational impact, emphasising that the victims were not merely safety statistics but sons, husbands and fathers whose deaths affected their families, colleagues and the organisation.
Following the incident, WAPCo reset its accumulated workforce-hour safety record and began rebuilding its performance. Another setback occurred in 2013, prompting the company to commence a fresh accumulation of safety hours from June 2014.
He explained that the sustained improvement had been supported by WAPCo’s Operational Excellence Management System, which was strengthened following investigations into the earlier fatality and aligned with international best practices and industry standards.
Despite the progress, Ojo warned that the company’s safety statistics remained “very, very fragile”, noting that a single serious incident could erase years of accumulated safety performance.
“That is why we are here to discuss how you can further help us to sustain this,” he said, urging contractors to take greater ownership of safety and ensure that operational pressures did not compromise established standards.
He further noted that any reportable or recordable incident involving WAPCo or its contractors could have wider implications for the company, given its operations and interfaces with major industry stakeholders in Nigeria and Ghana.
According to him, incidents require immediate attention from senior management and safety professionals, making it imperative for everyone involved in the company’s operations to maintain the highest level of vigilance.
Ojo urged contractors to work with WAPCo as genuine business partners, speak up whenever they identify safety concerns and actively contribute to sustaining the company’s record of operational excellence.
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