JULIET ALOHAN who? just returned from the 20th World Petroleum Congress in Doha, Qatar, takes a look at Nigeria’s outing at the conference and examines the possibility of achieving its set targets of becoming a huge exporter of refined products and ultimately the world’s largest producer of liquefied natural gas.
The just concluded World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Doha, Qatar drew participants from all over the world with Nigeria making an impressive outing.
The event which held from December 4-8, for the first time in the Middle East since its inception 20 years ago, gave Nigeria another opportunity to showcase the abundant resources the nation is blessed with before the world with a view to wooing investors to its oil and gas sector.
The desire of the federal government, according to the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, who led a powerful Nigerian delegation to the conference, is to become an export hub of refined petroleum products by 2015, and ultimately the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.
Speaking during her ministerial presentation, Madueke told the world that the federal government was targeting $130 billion investment inflow in the oil and gas sector even as it aspires to grow oil production to 4million bpd by 2015. Similarly, she said government desired to grow gas production to 5billion cubic feet per day at the same time from current levels of 1billion cubic feet.
She listed plans put in place by the government to achieve the target to include the construction of additional 2,000 km pipelines across the country to meet the envisaged requirement in the industry within the next five years, in addition to the existing 5,000 km pipeline of both oil and gas. Also listed amongst the plan was the establishment of an enabling environment for investment.
The Petrochemical plant in conjunction with Zenel Group, she said, should be up and running by 2015, while the food fertiliser plant as well and the blending plants would also be up by then, while informing that final negations with the original builders of the nation’s three refineries were being finalised for the purpose of transparency and elimination of the abuses associated with past turn-around maintenances.
“Port Harcourt refinery will kick off in a couple of months once we finish the negotiations; they (original builders) have assured us that the refinery will be up to 90 per cent utilisation. Warri and Kaduna refineries will be phased in over the next 12 months, and by the time we finish in two years time we should have 90 per cent utilisation in all three refineries,” she assured.
She said final negotiations with the green field refinery consortium would begin in a month’s time, having just concluded the feasibility study. “We are moving into final negotiations, hopefully within the next quarter we will kick off with the green field refineries and we have a time period of 36 months to be up and running fully and that will give Nigeria another 445,000 bpd in refining production. It will mean that in three years approximately we will become a huge exporter of refined products,” she said.
Furthermore, She noted that the successful implementation of the amnesty programme which has restored peace to the Niger Delta resulting in the increase of crude production to 2.4 million barrels per day from 700,000 bpd in 2009, was among reasons aspiring investors should be sure of their investment safety and returns, adding that the federal government has worked out different investment partnership models to guarantee quick return on investment to all investors.
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) currently before the National Assembly, when passed, she said, would further help transform the sector, adding that it was designed to protect the interest of both the Nigerian government and its investment partners. While informing that the sub-sahara gas pipeline was still very much on the front burner, she assured that the Brass and OK LNG projects should come on stream soon.???
Areas open for potential investment according to the minister, include engineering design services, petroleum engineering services, fabrication and construction, civil works, logistics and haulage as well as financial services.
While calling for foreign intervention in these areas, Madueke, however, opined that although Nigerian indigenous companies have shown strong capabilities since the advent of the Local Content Act, more foreign investments were still needed to help increase the quantity and the quality of in-country capacity.
In his remarks, the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Osten Olorunshola, noted that Nigeria’s transformation agenda of the oil and gas industry was still hinged on the passage of the PIB. While noting that it would be desirable to have the PIB passed as soon as possible, he said there were however, certain aspects of the PIB that do not have to wait for its passage before the ministry can start working and wooing investors ahead of its passage.
Also speaking with LEADESRHIP on phone, an industry expert who did not want to be named, opined that the country can achieve its set target within the period if the PIB was passed early. “We can become the world’s largest producer of LNG if we want to, we have the resources. We are only where we are now because of lack of will to make things better. Should our refineries work at full capacity, and we put an end to gas flaring, we can achieve the target,” the source said.
He however, stressed that the passage of the PIB would help clear the doubts presently entertained by investors who would naturally aspire to invest in the country. “At the moment, most investors are skeptical of their investment safety, only the passage of the PIB can help clear their doubts. By then they would know what they are going into and what their options are,” he stated.????