Foreign Investment Inflow in Oil Dips N36bn

Turbulence in the international oil market pushes investment in Nigeria’s petroleum further away, as year on year capital inflow dips by 85.7 per cent.

Data obtained from the National Bureau Statistics, NBS, revealed that foreign investment inflow into the oil sector dropped further by $178.42 million, about N35.684 billion in one year, from December 2014 to December 2015.

Specifically, the NBS in its Capital Importation Report for the Third and Fourth Quarters, Q3 & Q4 2015, pointed out that foreign investment inflow into the sector crashed to $29.78 million, about N5.95 billion as at the end of 2015, compared to $208.18 billion in 2014, representing a decline of 85.7 per cent.

“Further analysis revealed that in Q1 2015, foreign investment inflow into the petroleum industry stood at $9.47 million, compared to $201.14 million in Q1 2014.”

In the second, third and fourth quarters of 2015, capital imported into the oil and gas sector stood at $4.86 million, $2.21 million and $13.22 million respectively, against $3.83 million, $3.16 million and N0.05 million recorded in the corresponding periods of 2014.

Quarterly decline

In its analysis of capital importation in Q4 2015, NBS noted that in the last few years, a high proportion of the capital imported originated from the United Kingdom, UK, but that this had changed markedly since Q2 2014 when 68.46 per cent of imported capital was from the UK.

Thereafter, the NBS said capital imported from the UK has recorded a quarterly decline, adding that in Q3 & Q4 2015, the quarterly decline was 47.64 per cent and 23.70 per cent respectively.

It further stated that compared to the periods of the previous year, capital imported from the UK had declined by 80.42 per cent in Q3 and 77.85 per cent in Q4.

The NBS said: “As a result of these changes, the UK only accounted for 27.69 per cent of total capital imported in the final quarter of 2015, slightly less than the 27.96 per cent accounted for by the Netherlands.

“In total, between 2014 and 2015, the value of capital imported from the UK fell from $10.938 billion to $3.834 billion, a drop of 64.95 per cent. This fall accounted for 63.96 per cent of the total fall in capital importation between these years.”

It added that despite these trends, the UK and the United States, US, remained the first and second largest providers of capital investment for Nigeria, as they have been each year since 2007.