Oil and gas companies operating in Nigeria under the aegis of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) have committed to invest over $80 billion in projects in the oil and gas sector in the next few years and have also urged the federal government to ensure that the reform bills presently before the National Assembly are predictable and competitive to sustain investments, THISDAY reports.
Speaking yesterday to mark its 55th Anniversary in Lagos, the Chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC), Mr. Osagie Okunbor, who is also Chairman of OPTS, stated that despite the challenging fiscal regime, security and environmental circumstances, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry has opportunities for improvement and growth. He said the oil and gas industries had also contributed billions of dollars to the Nigerian governments at all levels in taxes, levies, royalties, rents and licenses.
But the Chief Executive Officer of Waltersmith, Mr. Abdulrazaq Isa, who moderated a special session titled “Competitive Fiscals,” argued that the country needs a competitive fiscal regime to attract investments, adding that the reform in the industry has protracted for too long, thus leading to dearth of investments for 10 years. According to him, the country needs to conclude the reform to stay competitive and he charged the government to make the environment attractive as capital only goes to where it is welcome.
Chairman of Total Upstream Companies in Nigeria and Managing Director of Total E & P, Mr. Nicolaz Terraz, who shared the success story of the Egina FPSO in the area of local content development, stated that the FPSO would arrive the SHI-MCI yard in Lagos in the next three months for integration before it sails away to the Egina field. Terraz noted that with Shell’s Bonga, ExxonMobil’s Erha, Chevron’s Agbami and Total’s Akpo, Usan and Egina fields, Nigeria has become a global leader in deepwater.