The total investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry, which
stood at 20 billion dollars in 2014, has dropped by 20 per cent in 2015. This
was made known by Mr Ali Moshiri,, the President of Chevron Africa and Latin
America Exploration and Production
This was disclosed by
him in Lagos at the 33rd annual
conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).
According to Moshiri Nigeria accounted for 20 billion dollars out
of the 600 billion dollars investment in the global oil and gas industry in
2014.
In Africa, Nigeria was the top producer of liquid
hydrocarbon and number three in gas production.
Moshiri said that the
country’s position in gas was because of lack of gas infrastructure and not
because of the level of its gas resources.
“But when you talk about investment, total industry
investment in 2014 was about 600 billion dollars and Nigeria had around 20
billion dollars . After the price crash, there is tremendous reduction in
global investment.
Moshiri said Nigeria had tremendous capacity and resources
to produce far above the current two million barrels of crude oil per day, but
added that much investment would be required.
He said 20 billion dollar investment would be required
yearly for the country to replace its current production levels.
Moshiri said many projects were locked up in Nigeria because
of cost citing the Bonga South West project as one of the them.
He said the current slump in crude oil price was as a result
of “ much inventory in the oil market’’.
Moshiri said between 2014 and 2015, about four million
barrels of crude oil per day were unconventionally introduced into the market
which led to this development.
In his speech, Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode Nigeria currently
maintained an economically unstable energy trade balance, in which the country
exports virtually all the crude oil produced and import substantial part of the
petroleum products consumed in the country.
Ambode, who was represented by the Commissioner for Energy
and Mineral Resources, Mr Olawale Oluwo, also argued that the country had
under-utilised other energy sources such as Bitumen, Coal and
non-carbon-related energy sources.
“Therefore, the challenge before us is to determine how we
as a nation can adapt to these emerging scenerios in global and national oil
and gas, so that we take advantage of them and shape them to our advantage,”
Ambode added. (NAN)
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