Nigeria attracts oil, gas investors through petroleum summit

The Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS), an African Petroleum Technology and Investment Conference, is expected to attract new investors into the region’s oil and gas industry.

Scheduled to take place in Abuja from February 19 to 23, 2018, the event is going to attract stakeholders from oil and gas sector from different parts of the world.

The Project Director, James Shindi, said as part of the on-going reforms in the sector, and as a contribution to the Nigerian and African Oil and Gas Industry, the Federal Government took a formal position to stage an annual National Resource event backed at the highest level.

This will create the perfect platform for cross pollination of ideas, networking, business and local content development, government to business, business to business, government to government and other linkages, while promoting Nigeria as a business and tourism destination to the global energy community.

According to him, the event will be run on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) basis and be self-funding, which explains why the government undertook an international competitive bidding process to select a partner to work with on specified terms.

These, he noted, are very strict terms but they will ensure that the partnership works, and all parties deliver on their roles and responsibilities.

Shindi stated: “The government has demonstrated adequate commitment to this event. For instance, the Federal Executive Council granted approval for the event to take place under the current arrangement. The government also through the Vice president; Professor Yemi Osinbajo unveiled the event in the presence of 19 Ministers of Petroleum who attended the extra-ordinary meeting of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) earlier this year.

“The support from the government has been fantastic. There are regular planning meetings, which involve all the government agencies under the Ministry, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC; Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR; Petroleum Equalisation Fund, PEF; Nigerian Content Development Monitoring Board, NCDMB. Others are the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA; Petroleum Technology Development Fund, PTDF; and Petroleum Technology Institute, PTI.

“There are also wider consultations with other agencies and government departments outside the Ministry of Petroleum to ensure that the event goes well. The government has also officially invited other governments to attend, including National Oil Companies from both the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC and non-OPEC member. The aim is to make this event a global reference point for energy related discourse globally.

“This event seems to be too important for any stakeholder to miss out. As Africa’s largest and most influential oil producer, Nigeria has continued to play a leading role in the global energy space and this event creates another outlet for Nigeria to lead the way in Africa’s response to the various challenges facing the oil and gas industry. The nation is blessed with huge oil and gas reserves, favourable policies and attractive incentives to attract and retain serious investors.

‘’From all indications, companies will get a unique opportunity to create business linkages, market their goods and services directly to decision makers from around the globe. It will also be an opportunity for companies to re-affirm their market presence and further demonstrate their commitment to the Nigerian and Africa’s oil and gas industry.

“From the government’s point of view, this event will enable them glean ideas and feedback from operators in the industry because the event is deliberately designed to be more than just another talk show. The aim is to discuss topical issues, offer recommendations which can be tracked so that in another 12 months when we gather again, it becomes easy to assess where we were back then, where we are at present and where we could likely be over short, medium and long term.”