The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission has revealed that only six out of the 42 deep offshore licences it granted in the last 30 years have been developed. This was made known by the Head of the National Oil and Gas Excellence Centre, Mr Victor Otobo....For More READ THE FULL STORY▶▶
He represented the Chief Executive of the NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, at the recent Kenna Partners Energy Dialogue held in Lagos under the theme, ‘Divestments, Re-Investments, Deep-Offshore Development and the Future of Oil and Gas in Nigeria’.
Otobo stated: “The commission has granted 42 licenses for deep offshore development over 30 years but only six have been developed so far.”
According to Otobo, funding constraints and technology are the major impediments to deep offshore development.
He added that the commission has, as a result, streamlined the tax regime, removed the bottlenecks, and provided clarity to potential investors to encourage investments.
He added: “The first step to divesting interest in an asset awarded by the Federal Government is to send a notification of divestment, following which the company sends an application stating how they intend to divest.
“The commission then conducts its due diligence to ensure the assets are without encumbrances and free of any potential transfer of liabilities.
“We then ascertain the abandonment and decommissioning plan before preparing a report for ministerial consent.
“Most challenges encountered in this process come after ministerial consent, as new assignees struggle to meet their financial obligations. This led to the creation of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Centres in Lagos and Yenegoa to swiftly resolve such disputes.”
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, who was represented by the Director of Upstream at the ministry, Kamoru Busari, also stated: “When we observed the global energy transition and defunding of oil and gas projects, we started a dialogue with other oil-producing African countries to start our bank to fund our projects, not to be frustrated into following the Western transition plan.
“This led to the creation of the $5bn African Energy Bank by the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation, which is now hosted by Nigeria.”….For More READ THE FULL STORY ▶▶
