Nigerian engineer saves $2 million by streamlining safety systems under new tax rules

A Nigerian engineer has demonstrated that rigorous functional safety management can significantly reduce project costs while maintaining high standards of protection, a development that is particularly relevant under the country’s new tax regulations, which incentivise cost efficiency and operational optimisation.

Shuaibu Nuan, Senior Process Automation Control and Optimization Engineer, has designed more than 300 safety instrumented functions (SIFs) across multiple oil and gas facilities.

In doing so, he has identified and removed unnecessary safety layers, saving his projects over $2 million in capital and operational costs. Safety instrumented functions are vital for protecting personnel, assets, and the environment from process hazards. However, over-specification or redundant layers can inflate costs without materially improving safety.

Nuan’s work shows that carefully scrutinising which safety functions are genuinely required not only improves efficiency but also enhances compliance with modern risk-based safety standards.

“The temptation in functional safety is always to add another layer,” notes a process safety specialist. “Every additional SIF provides incremental protection, but at some point the cost outweighs the benefit. Determining that point requires technical judgement and the courage to challenge conventional practices.”

Nuan’s approach integrates detailed risk assessment, hazard analysis, and reliability verification to ensure each SIF addresses a real hazard rather than hypothetical or low-likelihood scenarios.

By removing superfluous safety functions, the projects avoid costs associated with instrumentation, control system inputs and outputs, installation labour, testing, and ongoing maintenance.

Over the lifetime of the facilities, these savings accumulate substantially. The timing of this achievement aligns with Nigeria’s revised tax framework, which rewards companies for improving operational efficiency and reducing unnecessary expenditure.

By eliminating redundant safety functions, operators can demonstrate prudent capital management and improved tax positioning, without compromising on worker or environmental safety. Beyond financial savings, the work strengthens the overall safety posture.

Operators can focus resources on monitoring and maintaining critical protection layers, reducing system complexity and alarm burden. The outcome exemplifies the industry’s shift from compliance-driven safety towards a risk-based, value-oriented methodology.

Nuan’s dual role as both designer and optimizer highlights the balance between rigorous protection and economic efficiency.

His work provides a blueprint for companies in Nigeria and beyond, showing that regulatory compliance, operational safety, and financial prudence can be achieved simultaneously.