Premium energy services gain ground in Nigeria

Nigeria

Guillaume Niarfeix, managing director of SPIE Global Services Energy, talks to The Energy Year about the company’s premium positioning across Nigeria’s high-output assets and surging demand driven by new FIDs and large-scale commissioning projects.

SPIE provides industrial services spanning commissioning, electrical, instrumentation and maintenance for complex energy and infrastructure facilities worldwide.

• SPIE is strengthening its premium positioning in Nigeria by delivering high-reliability services to major operators, with clients increasingly willing to invest in maintenance to avoid costly downtime on high-output assets.
• The company’s integrated expertise in commissioning, electrical and instrumentation services is driving rapid growth across midstream and downstream projects, supported by expanding regional activity and strong partnerships.
• A surge in final investment decisions and large-scale projects is fuelling a tenfold increase in demand, prompting SPIE to scale up capacity while positioning itself to capitalise on Nigeria’s evolving energy landscape.

How would you describe SPIE’s market position today?
The market is recognising our ability to deliver. We’ve been consistently selected as a premium service provider, particularly for high-output facilities where reliability is paramount. Naturally, there’s always a debate about price – not every client is eager to pay for premium quality – but the results speak for themselves. Large facilities generating up to USD 5 million a day in revenue can’t afford breakdowns, so they’re willing to invest in maintenance, and that’s where we come in.
We’ve been very active with the likes of TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil for years. But what’s exciting now is our rapid growth with Seplat Energy where we have continued maintaining former Mobil assets as well as all their cranes. I’ve been positively surprised by how that relationship has evolved. They pay on time – that alone is a strong indicator of a healthy business partnership.
We’re not standing still. We’re growing our presence in Nigeria steadily by building strong, reliable partnerships and maintaining the highest standards across the board.

What services do you currently offer across the midstream and downstream segments?
From our perspective, the division between upstream and downstream is more of a formality than a functional difference. Our core expertise – pre-commissioning, commissioning, instrumentation, electrical services – applies across all segments where there is process and complexity in an industrial environment.
In fact, we could even serve industries outside of energy, but we don’t need to, as demand within the sector is already strong. We’ve grown very fast in the last five years, and we’re now in a phase of consolidation. That said, SPIE is one of the world’s largest contractors for refinery commissioning.
In Nigeria, we’re contributing to a large IOC project, and our scope includes everything from cable pulling to the installation of instrumentation. Beyond Nigeria, we’re also making strides in Ghana, where we’re exporting our expertise to new markets. Our teams can be mobilised rapidly, and we’re trusted to deliver under pressure, which makes us a go-to for major industrial-scale commissioning tasks.

Where do renewables fit in SPIE’s Nigerian operations today?
It’s not easy, but we’ve committed at the group level to reaching 25% renewables by 2030. That’s ambitious, especially considering how fast our oil and gas operations are growing – particularly in Nigeria. Our renewable energy focus here is on solar power, while at the group level, there’s more emphasis on offshore wind.
I see electrification as the backbone of the global energy transition. There’s no transition without power. Electrifying the economy is the only way to support decarbonisation, and that requires not just power generation, but reliable and flexible distribution systems. SPIE is developing a variety of solutions in this area.
However, in Nigeria, electrification isn’t yet the priority. The issue isn’t only generation – there’s a systemic lack of infrastructure for distribution, regulation and economic conditions to support large-scale development. That’s both a challenge and an opportunity. The absence of legacy infrastructure opens the door for new technologies and clean-slate investments, but it must be accompanied by a proper economic ecosystem to make it work.

Looking ahead, what demand trends and projects in Nigeria do you foresee for 2026?
We’re heading into a very positive cycle in the industry. In fact, we’re already experiencing it. Compared to previous years, we’re seeing around 10 times more requests, both in volume and project size. Some of that is driven by broader activity around the FID stage. Projects in Nigeria are now reaching the green-light phase at a pace we haven’t seen for two decades.
We’re involved in major scopes such as the ongoing activity at Ubeta which initially we didn’t bid for – Ponticelli took the lead. But now we’re getting significant portions of the scope because, frankly, the pie is too big for one contractor to handle alone.
We’re preparing aggressively for this surge. That includes launching an ambitious recruitment and training programme to double our capacity over the next two years. The market is booming, and we need to be ready to scale.
Much of this momentum is thanks to Nigeria’s current administration. They’ve made more progress in two years than what was done in the previous 20 in terms of attracting foreign direct investment and moving projects forward. It’s creating jobs – and for us, it’s creating massive business potential.

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