The Court of Appeal sitting in Asaba, Delta State, has delivered a crushing blow to Opeans Nigeria Limited, barring the company indefinitely from conducting the Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training (BOSIET) and issuing offshore safety certificates at its Warri and Port Harcourt centres.
In a judgment delivered on Friday, the appellate court upheld an earlier decision of the Delta State High Court, ruling that Opeans falsely presented itself as an internationally accredited offshore safety training provider.
At the heart of the case were Opeans’ claims of accreditation by the American Petroleum Institute (API) and Veriforce Limited Liability Company. Both organisations flatly denied any such relationship. API went further, disowning Opeans outright and warning that certificates issued by the company were not recognised and failed to meet global safety standards.
Despite these denials, court records show that Opeans continued to market itself to oil and gas operators as a certified BOSIET provider, even though BOSIET is a mandatory safety requirement for offshore workers.
The Court of Appeal agreed that allowing an unaccredited company to issue offshore safety certifications posed grave risks to human life and undermined the credibility of Nigeria’s offshore safety system. It therefore ordered an indefinite restraint on Opeans from conducting BOSIET and related trainings.
The judgment has now shifted the spotlight to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC), with industry stakeholders demanding swift enforcement.
Operators and safety professionals say the regulator must immediately stop recognising or accepting any BOSIET certificates issued by Opeans.
“This is no longer debatable. The Court of Appeal has spoken,” a senior offshore safety consultant told this newspaper. “Any regulator that continues to recognise those certificates would be acting in clear defiance of the law.”
Others warn that the implications go far beyond compliance.
“BOSIET is about survival offshore,” an industry source said. “When people go to sea with invalid training, lives are placed at risk.”
However, concerns remain about enforcement. Some industry insiders allege that under the previous leadership of the NUPRC, Opeans was shielded from sanctions despite multiple court rulings.
“For years, many of us questioned how this company kept operating,” an industry operator said. “The widespread belief is that regulatory protection played a role.”
Another source added that past reluctance to enforce court orders has damaged confidence in the system.
The controversy comes at a critical moment, following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s appointment of a new Chief Executive for the NUPRC. Observers say the Opeans case is an early test of the commission’s credibility under its new leadership.
“How this is handled will speak volumes,” a petroleum law expert said. “It will show whether the commission respects the courts and global standards, or whether court judgments can still be ignored.”
As of the time of filing this report, the NUPRC had yet to issue an official response to the Court of Appeal ruling.
