Nigeria’s oil, gas sector faces bleak future amid worsening investments

Stakeholders in Nigeria oil and gas sector have raised serious concern over the inability of the current administration to reach Final Investment Decisions (FIDs) on a single critical project five years after taking office.

It was gathered that many projects are still at the planning stage or bogged down by legal hurdles years after initiation.

Some of the projects include Shell’s Bonga South-West and Aparo, which is expected to add about 225,000 barrel per day (bpd); Bonga North (100,000bpd); Eni’s Zabazaba-Etan (120,000bpd); Chevron’s Nsiko (100,000bpd); ExxonMobil’s Bosi (140,000bpd); Satellite Field Development Phase Two (80,000bpd) and Ude (110,000bpd).

These projects are estimated to cost around $100 billion, boosting oil production by 875,000 bpd and revenue by about $1.5 billion.

The Ajaokuta-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) pipeline, a 614 km-long natural gas stretch developed by NNPC at $2.8 billion and scheduled for commissioning in 2020 is yet to commence, though NNPC originally announced tenders for its development as far back as July 2013.

Also mired in obscurity are the $20 billion Brass LNG project in Bayelsa State; the $9.8 billion Olokola LNG in Ogun; the 5000 km Nigeria-Morocco offshore gas pipeline which in current market price would cost an estimated $20 billion; and the expansion of LNG Train-7 plant, a Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas project, expected to attract $10 billion in FDI.

With new discoveries and investor-friendly policies in neighbouring countries like Mozambique, Ghana, Niger, Uganda, Kenya, Senegal,Mauritania and South Africa, Nigeria is fast losing its attraction.

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