Mr Israel Aye, Senior Partner, Energy and Commercial Transactions, Primera Africa Legal, has expressed the need for Nigeria to urgently attract investment from all over the world to boost the country’s oil and gas sector.
Aye made the call on Thursday during a Capacity Building Workshop on content development in Oil and Gas Sector Reforms, organised for Journalists in Lagos.
He said that transparency and accountability were necessary in the oil and gas sector to attract investment in oil exploration activities in the country.
According to him, there is the need to attract investment from all over the world as there is urgent need for investment in oil exploration activities in the country to boost the nation’s economy.
The expert said significant funding gaps must be addressed to sustain and grow production in the oil and gas industry.
“$9 billion for oil and $10 billion for gas are required to maintain production.
“Huge investments of about $24 billion are needed to meet national aspiration in oil and gas sector.
“In a $50 dollar per barrel world and continued price volatility, the industry unit technical cost needs to drop well below $20 dollar per barrel,” he said.
He said challenges in the oil and gas sector must be addressed which include security, contracting environment resulting in high cost of equipment, shallow pool of contractors and contracting cycle.
Aye also said that if Nigeria should be exporting resources as absence of driven price determination for petroleum products, this could create opportunity for welfare loss and rent seeking, distorting incentives for fair markets.
