The Nigerian government has urged the Turkish authorities to explore investment opportunities for major oil and gas projects in the country.
Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva made the offer at the ongoing CERAWeek – a conference with major oil markets and stakeholders – in Houston.
The minister hinted at this against the backdrop of the planned exit of major International Oil Companies (IOCs) from Nigeria’s oil market.
Investors King recalls that a number of foreign oil companies operating in the country, especially Shell PLC and ExxonMobil, had earlier disclosed plans of selling off their assets in Nigeria.
The minister enticed the Turks with IOCs planned divestments, especially from the onshore segment of the oil and gas sector, explaining that it would be worth the investment for Turkey. “Now that IOCs like Shell, ExxonMobil and others are planning to divest from onshore assets. More investments in that sector would be a great opportunity for Turkey to expand its investments interest in Nigeria,” the minister stated.
Sylva noted that Nigeria and Turkey’s relationship is significant and can be more than what it already is. He noted that the relationship can be extended to energy and other areas of trade adding that with the new Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), Nigeria has streamlined laws to promote the oil and gas investment environment.
The Nigerian minister called on the Turkish Deputy Minister Alpersen Bayraktar, to encourage Turkish investors to come to Nigeria and participate in the new opportunities presented by the exit of the IOCs.
The Turkish minister, however, solicited the support of Sylva to get Turkey to be part of the Nigerian upstream oil and gas sector. He disclosed that Turkey was prepared to shore up investments in the area of natural gas, given the right environment by Nigerians and the Nigerian government.
Nigeria has a fairly significant relationship with Turkey both commercially and economically.
According to the Turkish government, in 2019, the bilateral trade volume between Turkey and Nigeria was 725,654 million US Dollars. Turkish Airlines also has 7 direct flights per week to Lagos and Abuja with flights to Port-Harcourt that commenced in June 2019. The airlines also have cargo flights to Lagos and Kano 3 times per week with the Turkish government granting scholarships to Nigerian students since 1992.
