Minister of petroleum resources Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke has said that the federal government was targeting $130 billion investment inflow in the oil and gas sector even as it plans to construct additional 2,000 kilometers of pipeline.
Alison-Madueke spoke yesterday during her ministerial presentation at the ongoing 20th World Petroleum Congress (WPC) in Qatar. She disclosed plans by the government to develop in-country capacity.?
She told the congress that Nigeria, which currently has over 5,000km pipelines of both oil and gas, would be constructing additional 2,000km pipelines across in its desire to meet the envisaged requirement in the industry within the next five years.
“As part of the administration’s commitment to ensure that Nigeria and Nigerians reap from the proceeds of the God-given hydrocarbon resources, government is opening the upstream sector of the oil industry up to receive a projected $130billion investments within the next five years,” she said.
To achieve this, she said, government has put in place machinery for an explosive growth in the sector from the downstream, midstream and upstream. “There is an established enabling environment for investment and we are continually evolving to adapt to the challenges of the time,’’ she stated.
The minister listed the successful implementation of the amnesty programme, which has resulted in the increase of crude production to 2.4 million barrels per day from 700,000 bpd in 2009, as part of the reasons why aspiring investors would be sure of their investments’ safety and returns.
“Across the sector investment opportunities abound for willing multinationals and other partners as the federal government has worked out different investment partnership models to guarantee apt return on investment to all concerned,’’ she said.??
She further listed engineering design services, petroleum engineering services, fabrication and construction, civil works, logistics and haulage and financial services as some of the areas where foreign intervention is most needed.
She, however, said that although Nigerian indigenous companies have shown strong capabilities since the advent of the Local Content Act, more foreign investments are still needed to help increase the quantity and the quality of in-country capacity.
On the controversial Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) she said the ministry would, through President Goodluck Jonathan, re-submit the correct version to the National Assembly, due to the emergence of different versions in the House of Representatives, to enable a quick passage for the purpose of transforming the oil and gas sector.