By Uthman Salami
The Director of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Sarki Auwalu, has warned the federal government that the nation economy will be in despair due to over reliance on oil and gas.
He said over 70 per cent of the $2 billion realized monthly is contributed through oil and gas sector.
He stated this at the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) strategic engagement session in Lagos on Thursday.
According to him, the large chunk of the Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) into the country are attracted by the nation’s competitive oil and gas sector, stating the Department’s plans to build more oil reserves in the country.
He said, “In the upstream sector, we want to grow the reserves to 40 billion barrels and for gas, we want to hit 230 tcf.
“We already have capacity of about three million barrels per day, but we are not producing at that level and for midstream, we want to monetize the gas and we want to eliminate gas flaring.”
He emphasised that since the establishment of the Nigeria Oil and Gas Excellence Center (NOGEC), the country had so far received at least $20 billion worth of investment proposal from foreign investors.
In his words, “Immediately after the commissioning of the excellence centre, a lot of investment houses across the borders of Nigeria indicated their interest to come into Nigeria because of the transparency and predictability of the nation.
“As it is now, the excellence centre is to drive value through safety and enhance cost efficiency. This attracted investors and as you can see, we put a lot of emphasis on data because it is an ingredient of decision making and ingredients of investors.”
He said the investment is a product a lot of investors around the globe, stating their commitment to partner with companies that can prove their competence.
He revealed that the Department is expecting an additional 100,000 barrels to be produced by 2024 as more modular refineries keep developing across the country.
He declared that we have “a refinery revolution coming up and in fact by 2025, we may have domestic refining capacity with NNPC refinery, 455,000, Dangote 650,000, BUA 200,000 and others combined, we will be talking about 2 million in the next 5 years.
On his part, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI), Dr. Orji Ogbonnaya Orji, said his visit to the Department was declarative by stating that the Department has upgraded and now current with data and information.
Orji claimed that NEITI has established a framework to measure oil revenue earning of government through rentals, taxes and royalties urging the DPR to offer more technical support to enable NEITI achieve its objectives
According to him, previous reports and finding of NEITI revealed lopsided contract awards, massive stealing of crude and other illegal activities which he claimed was responsible for non remittances of accruable revenue to government.
He disclosed that the body has unveiled two documents designed to enhance transparency and accountability in the extractive industries.
He added that the roadmap provides comprehensive plans and actions designed to help Nigeria in its implementation of beneficial ownership disclosure in the extractive industries.