Oil assets divestments will boost production, employment – Wabote
The Nigerian oil and gas industry is poised for a boost in crude oil production, employment creation, and capital injection with the planned divestment of some assets by select international oil and gas companies and concomitant acquisition by Nigerian operating companies, the Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote said on Wednesday.
The Executive Secretary painted this picture while delivering the keynote address on Divestments in oil and gas: the challenges, the opportunities, and the implications to the industry in Nigeria at the 2023 Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) Energy and Labour Summit in Abuja.
Quoting the AfricaReport magazine, he stated that about 26 oil mining licenses have been divested or acquired by oil and gas companies in the Niger Delta Basin area of Nigeria in the past decade. Some of the divestments currently on the cards include the plan by Shell and ExxonMobil to sell oil and gas assets worth billions of dollars, in addition to Eni’s announcement in September of an agreement with Oando PLC for the sale of NAOC interests in six (6) onshore blocks and Okpai gas power plant in, Delta State.
He emphasized that divestments of oil assets are not necessarily negative, rather they present an avenue for the local capacities and capabilities that have been developed through local content implementation to be brought to bear in the upstream sector.
Wabote outlined several opportunities that would accrue from divestments, such as the injection of new capital, the rejuvenation of divested assets, and an increase in crude oil production through the investment in technologies by the acquiring firms.
Other direct benefits are the creation of direct and indirect employment opportunities by the indigenous companies and their service providers.
Picture Caption:
Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Engr. Simbi Kesiye Wabote with some members of the National Executive Committee and NCDMB Branch Executive of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN) at the 2023 Energy and Labour Summit in Abuja on Wednesday.
