The federal government is on its way to achieving its revenue projection for 2024 from the oil and gas sector with an investment commitment of $16.6 billion.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, who made this known at the Ministerial Sectoral Update For The Present Administration, said the effort of the government to create an environment where investments thrive is beginning to yield results.
He said: “One of our main objectives has been to create an environment where investment can thrive. For over a decade, the non-passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and inconsistent policies had driven investments away. Today, I am pleased to announce that our efforts have rekindled investor confidence in the sector. Notable examples include investments committed to the tune of $5bn and $10bn respectively in deepwater offshore assets; and $1.6bn investment commitment in oil and gas asset acquisition.”
“We’ve done what a government is expected to do to attract investments. Am happy to announce to you that we have a company that in the next few weeks; will announce a $10 billion investment in deep offshore. And they are in town waiting for me. These were companies that left Nigeria due to inconsistent policies, the atmosphere wasn’t favourable but following this administration’s policy of deliberately creating an environment that is competitive globally they are all coming back.
“Our target in 2024, having worked hard to create the enabling environment, we have a minimum of $20 billion in investments this year.
“The only way you can increase production and generate money that the government needs to finance our economic programmes is the oil and gas sector. What we are doing is to see how we can create that investment opportunity for companies to come and invest.
“So the point is that we have been able to rekindle the confidence, we have restored the confidence of the investing community in the oil and gas sector, and that is why Halliburton’s global CEO was here, and that was why the total global CEO was here last Saturday. And I’ve met with the global CEOs of Shell, Eni, as I speak now, the team of Eni is still waiting for me in my office. All these are to show that the policies of this government are working, we are already bringing back the investors who have enough confidence in this present administration.”
Lokpobiri, who said that oil production over the last 12 months increased to 1.7 million barrels per day from a paltry 1.1 million as of May 29, 2023 added that the situation has been helped by the government’s relentless efforts to streamline operations and resolve conflicts among various stakeholders.
According to the minister, the only way to go for the country is to keep drilling. In the past 12 years it did not happen but it has started happening today in significant numbers under this administration.
Part of efforts to increase oil production, according to the minister, includes the revamp of redundant oil assets to active status; continuous engagement with IOCs and Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) members in resolving industrial disputes towards increasing production; resolutions of internal Joint venture contracts feud between joint ventures partners on critical productions fields; engaging local communities with critical assets running through them to protect the assets all in a bid to decrease oil theft in the country; and the consolidation of existing security framework with private security firms and Government security agencies for pipeline surveillance, which led to sharp decline in crude oil theft and thus increased production for export.
“During this period, we also experienced the coming on stream of OMLs 13 (Sterling Exploration) and 85 (First E&P), with the respective assets reaching first oil in the development of their licenses.
“These assets are expected to produce an average of 20,000 and 40,000 barrels per day respectively. This achievement is another testament to the commitment of this administration to optimize production from the nation’s oil and gas assets by providing an enabling environment for existing and prospective investors,” he further said.
