‘Nigeria’s 40bn barrels reserve by 2020 is a mirage’
Nigeria’s aspiration to achieve 40 billion barrels of oil reserve by 2020 has been described as a huge ruse because there is nothing on ground to suggest that such a target can easily be achieved within the target period.
The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) says looking at what is happening in the industry vis a vis government policies, the country still has a long way to go in respect of the target it has set for herself.
According to the association, the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that would have helped has spent 18 years in the National Assembly without making any headway.
Andrew Ejayeriese, president of the association, while speaking about the forthcoming international conference and exhibition coming up in Lagos next week, said it unfortunate that the bill had not been passed to law, but his association would continue to advocate for it to be passed.
According to Ejayeriese, without passing the bill the industry will not grow and there will be no money to diversify because investors that consider the Nigerian environment not conducive enough will move to another clime favourable to them.
He, however, said Nigeria could choose not to do anything, but one thing was certain, the world would move on. “It will not wait for Nigeria, while the country can continue to mock itself around by not getting her policies right. The money will move to where there are incentives for it to operate,” Ejayeriese said.
He said the country kept mouthing diversification without investing in the oil and gas industry and wandered where the money for diversification would come from.
He said the money to be used for diversification could only come from oil and gas, and therefore urged the government to sit up about reenergising the oil and gas industry.
On the issue of gas resources, he said the government should put in place appropriate gas fiscal incentives that would monetise gas through series of developmental projects.
He said some companies might sometime prefer to pay tax rather than stopping gas flare, saying, “Such punitive measures might be a short-term solution. The most sustainable solution would be by putting in place a gas fiscal framework. If the policy is right investors would come.”
Oil and gas, the association said, will continue to be a commodity characterised by peaks and troughs, adding that the cyclicality of the industry is not a new phenomenon.
“Stability in the oil prices is critical in order to achieve economic growth. The global energy market is getting increasingly more complex: with low oil price regime, hydrocarbon exploration and exploitation are no longer as profitable as it was prior to the price decline in 2015,” he said.