By Etuka Sunday
The President, Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari yesterday assured foreign investors of maximum security and high return on investments.
Declaring open, the 3rd Edition of the Nigeria Petroleum Summit, currently holding in Abuja, the said, Nigeria, as an oil producing nation, remains ready and accessible for legitimate investment from all interested countries, individuals and partners.
Represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, he said, the guaranteed high return on investments in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Market couldn’t be gotten anywhere in the world.
“Let me assure foreign delegates that their investments are well secured in Nigeria and a high return on investment is always guaranteed. It cannot get better anywhere,” he said.
The President said, towards achieving the realisation of a safe and secure investment environment, his administration has taken steps to repositioned the oil and gas sector in the following areas:
“Improve the business environment and drive investments in the upstream, midstream and downstream.
“Reviewed and gazetted policies and regulations to enhance operations in the sector.
“Enhance accelerated had revolution by developing infrastructure for multi domestic utilisation of LPG and CNG.
“Commence the process of commercialising has flare and increasing gas to power.
“Improve Niger Delta security through capacity building and economic empowerment.
“Enforce transparency and efficiency in the sector by building capacity, enabling the use of IT and automation and entrenching performance management.
“Increase refineries production capacity, improve stakeholders management, international relations and bi-lateral coordination
“Carry out extensive work for the passage of the PIB, I to open up the oil and gas sector to competitiveness,” he said.
Speaking in a Keynote Address, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva said, NIPS, Nigeria‘s official petroleum summit is a Pan-Atrican event designed as a meeting point for the oil and gas industry to introduce and harness new technologies and ideas that will lead to development of new strategies that would attract and enhance inflow of foreign investments while improving success rates of indigenous business engagements.
He said, the gathering would also facilitate close interaction of industry specialists, leaders in the private and oil and gas sectors, resulting in cross fertilization of ideas that will advance the needed development in the sector.
He said, “this 3rd Edition of NIPS will live up to expectation as a truly world class event and promises to take Nigeria and Africa as a whole to the next level in oil and gas business.
“The calibre of participants that are here to attend in addition to the planned exhibition attest to this.
“I hope NIPS will impact positively the emerging African economy and consequently support the aspiration of lifting millions out of poverty in the next decade,” he said.
In his remarks, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Nigeria Liquidfied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG), Tony Attah said, “the focus of this year’s conference on ”Widening the Integration Circle: Technology, Knowledge, Sustainability and Partnership”, is a pointer to the fact that our country, and ultimately our continent is conscious of the need to strategically harness all these elements. They will certainly give us an edge to maximally benefit from the volatile and highly competitive global energy sector.”
Attah said, in the past 20 years, Nigeria LNG has resiliently maintained top rating as a significant player and the 5th major supplier of global LNG with the export of over 4500 LNG cargoes delivered safely worldwide and still counting.
He said, “the addition of Train 7 to our current six-train plant will add another eight million metric tonnes of LNG to the current sustained 22milion metric tonnes production capacity of our plant. That will keep Nigeria prominently on the list of the top 7 suppliers of global LNG. This is an enviable position for an African country to achieve in the face of our evolving technological advancement which is managed by highly skilled Nigerian professionals of varying competencies.
Represented by the General Manager, Production, NLNG, Engr. Adeleye Falade, the MD said, “the very quick wins from Train 7 project for Nigeria is the creation of jobs for our teaming youths, netting up to 12,000 direct iobs at the construction phase as well as the associated skills acquisition through a deliberate effort at technology transfer.
“Riding on the back of a robust Nigerian Content plan endorsed by the Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board (NCDMB), 55% of the Engineering activities for Train 7 will be carried out in-country and 55% of all procurement for execution of the proiect will be undertaken by Nigerian vendors.
100% of the installations and construction will happen in Nigeria and the entire project will attract huge Foreign Direct Investment to the Nigerian economy. Other benefits include the emergence of upstream and other associated projects that will bolster our economy.
“With conversations like the ones we are having here at NIPS, there is no doubt that we can all build synergies that should propel Nigeria LNG to sustain its winning streak and support the emergence of new LNG suppliers in the country and the continent at large.
“Our motivation to build and operate Train 7 is heightened by the proven success recorded by Nigeria LNG in the past 20 years of operation. In its current state, the company has significantly reduced the environmental hazards arising from gas flaring.
“To date, the company has converted about 191.5bcm (billion standard cubic metres) or 6.8ch (trillion cubic feet) of Associated Gas (AG) to Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and Natural Gas Liquids (NGLs), thus reducing gas flaring by Upstream Companies from over 60% when it commenced operations to less than 20% currently.
“For a Nigerian company managed by 100% Nigerian Management team and 95% indigenous workforce, it is a daunting teat to be reputed as the first worldwide in plant reliability and the single most expansive LNG plant on the continent. We can sustain this and do much more. Thank you for your attention,” he said.
