BRUSSELS -- In its first satellite export sale, China's state-owned space hardware manufacturer has won a contract to
build and launch a large telecommunications spacecraft for the Nigerian
government in a $311 million deal that Nigeria's
chief negotiator said elicited little serious interest from U.S. and European
companies.
The Nigerian National Space Research
Development Agency (NASRDA) expects to start formal work on the project with
China Great Wall Industry Corp. of Beijing Feb. 21 with a series of meetings
in China.
The Nigcomsat-1 contract from Nigeria is an example of that
oil-exporting nation's determination to employ space technology, not in spite
of its poverty but because of it, NASRDA Director-General
Robert Boroffice said.
He said the spacecraft would be used to harvest
contracts from Nigeria-based telecommunications and VSAT operators that today
send more than $100 million per year to outside satellite operators. Boroffice said Nigeria will enact legislation to
encourage these satellite customers to shift their business to Nigcomsat-1.
The Chinese government is not known
to have built a satellite with a communications payload similar to that planned
for Nigcomsat-1, but it has built platforms with the help of European
payload-component suppliers including Alcatel Space. For China, the development
of a satellite-manufacturing capability able to compete on world markets would
help not only the satellite-equipment makers but also the builders of China's
Long March rocket series. Chinese rockets are unable to launch satellites with
U.S.-made components, placing the commercial-launch market out of China's reach
except for those few spacecraft that do not carry U.S.-built hardware.
Nigeria gained experience in
satellite work through a technology-transfer program with
Britain's Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) that led to the launch of the Nigeriasat-1 Earth
observation satellite. Nigeriasat-1 is one of four satellites in orbit as part
of the SSTL-coordinated Disaster Monitoring Constellation. Algeria, Turkey and
Britain also contributed satellites to the network, and China is expected to
add its own spacecraft to round out the five-satellite constellation.
The Nigeriasat-1 experience, during
which 15 Nigerian engineers were trained at SSTL, has encouraged Nigeria to go
further.
In an interview here Feb. 17 during
the International Conference on Space Cooperation, organized by the European
Union and the European Space Agency, Boroffice said Nigeria is negotiating a
second contract with SSTL for a higher-resolution Earth observation satellite
that it will launch as part of a cooperative program with South Africa and
Algeria. Boroffice said he is aiming for an optical imager with a 2.5-meter
ground resolution.
The telecommunications satellite
ordered from China is another example, Boroffice said. NASRDA conducted
an open, international competition for the Nigcomsat-1 satellite using Telesat
Canada as an intermediary and received expressions of interest from U.S.,
European, Russian, Israeli and Chinese companies, he said.
The Russian and Israeli bidders were
unable to meet the contract terms, which called for a high-powered satellite
capable of covering all of Nigeria's territory in Ku-, C-, L- and Ka-band from
the less-than-optimal position of 42 degrees east longitude.
Boroffice said the major
manufacturers in Europe and the United States appeared not to believe that the
Nigerian government would follow through on the contract work.
He described the visit of one major
manufacturer this way: "A senior representative of this company came to visit
us and was arrogantly telling us what we needed, and why we didn't want what
our RFP [bid request] said," Boroffice said. "I told him I was expecting him to
ask two questions he didn't ask, and I posed these questions to him myself: Do
you see people living in trees here? Do you see lions or hyenas running in the
streets? This company was not taking us seriously."
Boroffice said U.S. bidders likely
hesitated because of concerns about U.S. technology-export law. NASRD had made
training of Nigerian engineers a condition of the bids for Nigcomsat-1.
China Great Wall, Boroffice said,
was the only bid received by deadline that met the specifications. The contract
was signed Dec. 15.
Included in the contract is a $112
million satellite apparently based on China's DFH-4 platform. The satellite will
carry 26 transponders that Boroffice said
will carry the equivalent broadcasting power of 44 36-megahertz transponders.
Also included, besides the launch,
insurance and a technology-transfer package, is a capacity-backup provision and
possible options on a future satellite. Boroffice
declined to detail the contract terms. The contract-payment plan, he said,
calls for most of the $311 million to be paid out over years following a
successful in-orbit delivery of Nigcomsat-1.
Nigeria has a relatively open
satellite communications sector that several satellite-fleet operators have
targeted. Boroffice said that with the Nigcomsat-1 contract signed, Nigerian
government authorities will advise Nigeria-based satellite users that they
should not enter into long-term contracts with their current satellite-capacity
providers.
Boroffice said Nigeria would be
establishing a commercial company to sell capacity on Nigcomsat-1, with up to
40 percent of the equity available to non-Nigerian investors. He said Nigeria
is talking to several potential investors.
Comments: pdeselding@compuserve.com
