Piet had
the chance to visit another country in Africa: Nigeria. He was asked to support
a few projects that are being evaluated in the office in Port Harcourt, an
infamous location in the Shell world. Due to a number of security incidents in
the past movements in this town are very restricted. The expat staff lives in a
camp (RA, or residential area), which looks a lot like Miri, with large
bungalows in green, tropical gardens. The biggest difference is the high wall
around this camp, with barbed wire on top. Staff and partners are not allowed to
leave the camp, and at 6.30 AM in the morning a bus, with an armed escort
(military with machine guns), drives the employees to the office (IA, or
industrial area). At 4 PM sharp the convoy goes in the opposite direction to put
the ‘prisoners’ back in their golden cage. The non-working partners therefore
see nothing else than the camp and the airport, on their way in or out. Despite
these restrictions the people try to make the best of their stay by organising
many social and sporting events. The weather was very hot and humid, and one of these events, the
weekly Fun Run, a 6 km loop around the perimeter of the camp, proved to be
quite a challenge!
As the
busses have curtains and the windows are often fogged due to the high humidity
it was difficult to get a good impression of Port Harcourt. The limited views
showed a chaotic, dirty city, heaving with people, motorbikes and Nigerian
tuk-tuks, making the camp a peaceful oasis.
After
flying in from Paris Piet spend a whole week in the office, working mainly with
Nigerian colleagues, and he also got a good feel for life in Port Harcourt. And
it is indeed true what is said: there is oil and gas everywhere in the
subsurface, a huge contrast with the other projects he has worked on the past 6
years! At the end of the week he flew back to The Netherlands, to adjust his
body back to the coldest April week in history.
A typical bungalow in the Port Harcourt camp
The outer perimeter of the camp looks like a prison wall
The bus to the office, with an armed escort in front
Street scene in Port Harcourt
Another view from the bus
On the way back to the airport
Everybody is living on the street
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