Oil investors move $15bn out of Nigeria in one year

Oil investors moved out about $15 billion raked in from the 2015 Joint Ventures (JV) assets divestment in Nigeria. Indigenous oil producers, who bought the assets, gave this hint yesterday at the on-going Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference (NOG) in Abuja.

They said that the extremely difficult market situation, which led to the outflow of the funds had also prevented other investors from bringing billions of dollars in investments to Nigeria.

This came as the Federal Government promised to reduce entry barriers for investors in the oil and gas industry.

The Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru, and Acting Director, Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Ahmed Rufai Shakur, in separate goodwill messages, promised that there would be improved collaboration among the stakeholders to be steered by the government.

The government, which he said, had done a lot, would “continue to do more for the development of the sector,” Baru said. Shakur added: “We are working towards reducing barriers for entry. The more the merrier.”

Speaking at the conference, the indigenous producers including Aiteo Group, Oando Plc and NestOil, however, tasked the government to hasten action on petroleum industry bill (PIB) and oth-   er interventions to save more investments from leaving the country.

Managing Director of Aiteo Group, Victor Okoronkwo, told participants at the conference that most investments in the Exploration and Production (E&P) are avoiding Nigeria.

“And we have to also quickly find out why substantial investments are leaving the country,” he said. Recalling his company’s acquisition of 45 per cent stakes from Shell and other IOCs in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 29, the Aiteo boss maintained that the stakes acquisition “played a key role in the turnaround for the oil industry.”

The challenges facing the industry, according to him, ranged from PIB to JV cash call, to gas, to lack of power among others.

Expressing optimism that the government, through the NNPC would work harder to surmount the challenges, the Aiteo boss advised the outgoing Group Managing Director of NNPC to include these challenges and the need to resolve them in his handover note to his successor, Mr. Mele Kyari.

On power he said: “More Africans have more mobile phones that they have access to electricity!” He declared.

SOURCE: newtelegraphng.com