Investments in Nigeria's Oil and Gas industry may hit $29.4 billion annually over the next 5 years, with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) accounting for $11 billion.

In terms of oil and gas industry investment level, Nigeria is said to rank tops among members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), closely followed by Saudi Arabia.

Dr. Funsho Kupolokun, NNPC group managing director, made the disclosure in his paper entitled “Harnessing the opportunities in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry,” at the opening of the 2007 Offshore West Africa international conference and exhibition in Abuja, Nigeria.
He said the anticipated growth in the industry expenditure portended funding challenges, adding that arrangements were in place to mitigate these challenges through alternative means.

Kupolokun said a new funding model had been worked out and would soon be signed by the operating partners. This, according to him, is in addition to the joint venture and poduction sharing scheme already in place in the upstream sector.

It is expected that the new model would enable the partners to surmount funding challenges when the existing funding model cannot meet the demand.

Kupolokun said reserves had experienced steady growth over time, while production capacity had reached the 3 million b/d mark, indicating a 4% growth per annum in the last 3 years.

“In the last one year, we have added about 800,000 barrels per day capacity and we feel confident that we would meet the 4 million b/d capacity by 2010,” he said.

He said there were several gas utilization projects lined up to come on stream, including: seven new power stations in the Niger Delta, six fertilizer plants, two cement plants, three liquefied natural gas plants, the West African Gas Pipeline project, expansion of the existing LNG facility on Bonny Island, a study of the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project and a gas-to-liquid plant.

Kupolokun said President Olusegun Obasanjo would commission the 560 MMcf/d West African Gas Pipeline Project, in Lagos in the first week of next month. In the first week of May also, it is expected the final investment decision for the Brass LNG project is expected to be made.

The group managing director also identified a few barriers to gas development in the country, adding that while this includes the gas master plan, plans are underway to address the situation.
Government, he said, had worked on the gas legislation and had brought a downstream gas act before the national assembly for consideration, while a gas policy document was now ready for industry use.

He further said there were several investment opportunities in the gas sector in the area of manufacturing and fabrication, adding that 150 metric tons of fabrication tonnage was anticipated, but the current capacity was only 25 metric tons. “Over $25 billion worth of procurement services would be required over the next 5 years,” he said.

Source: Vanguard

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