- JV Funds’ll Attract Investments in Oil Sector – Shell
Improvement in the release of joint venture funds for oil and gas projects by the Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation will attract more investments to Nigeria’s oil sector, Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria has said.
According to the SPDC, the recent development in the JV funding by the Federal Government has also increased the confidence of investors in the country’s oil sector.
Shell is one of the world’s renowned energy companies and has been operating in Nigeria for about 60 years.
The Managing Director, SPDC and Country Chair of Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor, who disclosed this in an interview in one of the latest publications of the KPMG, said in recent times a lot of things had been achieved between the international oil companies and the Federal Government.
He said, “I have become more confident of prospects in this sector now more than any time in the recent past. This is essentially because of what we have been able to achieve in partnership with the NNPC and the Nigerian government on the JV funding. Historically, we struggled with all the parties, particularly the NNPC, in meeting cash flow obligations.
“With the very far-reaching steps that were taken last year to reach an arrangement to manage the whole JV funding structure, we have seen far more stability in the NNPC meeting its obligations. We still have a few areas to cover, in particular 2016 arrears, but even that is good progress.”
Okunbor expressed optimism that the increased confidence in the sector was a precursor to increased investments.
He said, “What this has done, from a Shell perspective, is that it has actually created much more confidence in the minds of investors. This has been running for a year; so we can say there is some stability and we can seriously consider investments.
“Following a meeting we held recently with Mr President in London, our global CEO has said that if we get all the conditions right, together with our partners, we will be able to make significant investments in the sector.
“That is a major indicator of what we are able to do, but it is underpinned by a lot more confidence in the ability of the country to meet its obligations. I am pretty confident that if we can sustain this momentum, we will see investments flow into this sector. The multiplier effect when this happens will be tremendous.”
