Olusola Bello
As the country is getting set for the passage of Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), with the hope that it would come with fiscal regime that would be favourable to all stakeholders, a number of the stakeholders are now stepping up activities with the aim of resuscitating some of the projects that have been put on hold for several years.
The Federal Government at several fora had also have demonstrated its determination at ensuring that investors are able to resuscitate some of their abandoned projects to create employments.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Slyva has always been saying that the government would look into the issues that are holding back the International oil Companies and other stakeholders from investing in the oil and gas industry .
Nigeria was only able to attract about $3 billion or 4 % of the total oil and gas investment valued at $70 billion committed to project between 2015 and 2019.
Following this development, as many as 100 oil and gas projects are set to start in Nigeria by 2025, accounting for 23 percent of all projects starts in the industry in Africa within the next five years, data and analytics company GlobalData said in a new report.
According to Oilprice.com,Petrochemical projects will hold the highest share of new startup projects in Nigeria through 2025, with 28 projects, followed by 25 expected upstream oil and gas projects, 24 refinery projects, and 23 midstream projects, according to GlobalData estimates.
In the upstream, some of the notable projects include the deepwater Bonga North oilfield and the onshore conventional gas Okpokunou Cluster Development. Bonga North is currently in its Front End Engineering Design (FEED) stage and is expected to start operations by 2025. Cluster Development is at a feasibility stage and is expected to begin operations by 2024, GlobalData said.
Projects in Nigeria’s refining sector will also be closely watched as the biggest African economy is eager to reduce its reliance on fuel imports, revamp its old refineries, and build new ones.
The 650,000 barrel per day Lagos I refinery is a key project expected to start operations in 2022 and become the largest oil refinery in Africa.
“Nigeria is betting on several refinery and petrochemicals projects to meet its growing domestic demand and reduce its reliance on imports. The projects also have potential to transform Nigeria as an exporter of refined products to neighboring countries,” Teja Pappoppula, Oil & Gas Analyst at GlobalData, said.
Nigeria, Africa’s largest crude oil producer and exporter, expects to end its crude-for-fuel swap deals by 2023 when its refining capacity is set to increase with state refineries revamped and a new refinery built, Mele Kyari, Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said in October last year. Nigerian refineries, which are in need of refurbishment, will be fully revamped and running by 2023, he added.
Back in October, Kyari said that “The outlook for Nigeria’s downstream sector looks bright with attractive market conditions, large market, significant crude distillation capacity additions from various refinery projects, improvements of the distribution network & the use of natural gas.”