Oscarline Onwuemenyi 02 November 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, says investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector, which took a plunge in recent years, would pick up soon following the conclusion of a review of the country’s Joint Venture, JV, cash call framework.
According to him, this would be the impact of the new Roadmap for the Petroleum Industry launched last week in Abuja by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Kachikwu stated that following the review, many oil and gas investors were set to return and invest heavily in the country’s oil and gas sector, stressing that there would be an explosion of investment in the sector soon.
Kachikwu also announced plans by the government to review the mechanism for providing security for oil and gas installations in the country to meet with standards in other oil and gas producing countries.
The newly-launched Oil and Gas industry roadmap, tagged ‘The 7 Big Wins,” covers policy and regulation, business environment and investment drive, gas revolution, refineries and local production capacity, Niger Delta and security, transparency, and efficiency, as well as stakeholder management and international co-ordination.
“On the issue of JV cash call, we have done a yeoman’s job. We are nearing completion of those negotiations, it would go to the FEC and it does not require a law,” he said.
He added: “Those things are basically MoUs…We are going to structure the MoUs to enable them to find the funding they require.
“There is even a budgeting process in terms of what we approved should be done, but how you now sequence the distribution of the funding is where the catch is.”
Emphasising that the Federal Government had made appreciable progress on funding, Kachikwu stated that the government would be saving over $1.2 billion in the process.
At the launch of the Oil and Gas industry roadmap last week in Abuja, Kachikwu also announced plans for a $10 billion infrastructure development fund for the Niger Delta region.
“We are launching $10 billion infrastructural rebirth investment programmes in the Niger Delta region. This is not money that is going to come strictly from the federal government.
“It is going to come from investors, individuals who are ready to do private sector infrastructure, obviously states and federal governments as the case may be and international organisations who have shown interest to help,” he stated.