Friday, 29th March 2024
To guardian.ng
Search

Nigerian firms execute $12b oil, gas projects in 2014

By Sulaimon Salau
08 April 2015   |   5:27 am
The anticipated growth in participation of indigenous firms in the Nigerian oil and gas industry may have begun to manifest as indications emerged that about $12 billion worth of projects were implemented by the companies last year.
Gas station

Gas station

The anticipated growth in participation of indigenous firms in the Nigerian oil and gas industry may have begun to manifest as indications emerged that about $12 billion worth of projects were implemented by the companies last year.

With this development, stakeholders believed the indigenous firms have firmly established their footprints in the sector, even as more companies go into mergers and acquisitions to buoy their respective portfolios.

The Group Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer, Oando Plc, Wale Tinubu, who made this known at an interactive session recently, said his company is prepared and determined to make tremendous impact in the sector through new projects that are expected to shore up production to about 100,000 barrels per day in the next five years.

Tinubu, who identified the crash in crude prices as a major challenge to indigenous firms’ operations, urged its contemporaries to take advantage alternative funding options.

He said the oil firms operating in Nigeria are seriously hit by the sliding price, hence the need to concentrate more on debt management in 2015.

According to him, Nigeria’s oil production has remained stagnant since 2010 at 32 per cent oil fields utilisation capacity, adding that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow have reduced drastically over the last five years.

“There is need for a renewed perspective in the way and manner the oil and gas sector will be managed.

“In reality, our challenge is not about oil, we have enough oil in Nigeria, our challenge is not that resources don’t exist, resources do exist, our challenge is really getting the soft side of our businesses together, what I called our software and getting the systems processes, policies and events that will enable this God-given resources to be effectively produced and converted into economic gains,” he said.

He however enjoined the Federal Government to consider policies that will enhance production, promote transparency, reduce security concern, improve infrastructure and eradicate bureaucracy and red-tapism.

Seeking more government’s support for the sector through an alternative fiscal policies and incentives, Tinubu pointed out the need for the joint venture partners to source for alternative funding in the wake of cash call default.

The Oando boss, who equally identified the growing impact of the indigenous firms in the sector, said about $12 billion projects were implemented by Nigerian firms last year, while he pointed out the need for the Federal Government to review the policies guiding the marginal field operators in the country.

According to him, the recent marginal field policy is archaic and uneconomical, thereby making some indigenous players to default in the project aspirations.

0 Comments