• Insists Africa must solve its energy poverty problems from within
Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, yesterday said that Nigeria’s indigenous oil and gas companies now account for about 60 per cent of the country’s crude production.
Lokpobiri disclosed this when he received the Minister of Petroleum of the Republic of Congo, Stev Simplice Onanga, and his delegation in Abuja during a visit focused on Nigeria’s local content development in the oil and gas industry.
He said the growth of indigenous participation had significantly increased the retention of value within Nigeria, noting that the development was driven by deliberate local content policies and the divestment of some international oil companies’ onshore and shallow-water assets to Nigerian operators.
“Before now it used to be 90 per cent IOCs. Right now, we have 60 per cent indigenous companies accounting for the production we have in Nigeria. That means 60 per cent retention of value in the country,” Lokpobiri said.
According to him, some major indigenous companies are now operating without expatriate staff, citing Renaissance as an example of a company that is fully managed by Nigerians.
He said the development had also resulted in the emergence of a growing number of competent Nigerian oilfield service companies capable of competing alongside international operators.
“Before now, we had service companies, big service companies like Schlumberger, that were dominant. But as of today, we have so many, maybe in excess of 20 to 30 competent companies that are in the service industry today,” the minister said.
Lokpobiri explained that while international service companies continue to play a major role in deep offshore operations, Nigerian companies have increasingly taken responsibility for land, swamp and shallow-water operations.
He said the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) had played a significant role in building the capacity of indigenous companies and professionals in the sector. The minister also explained that NCDMB’s operations were financed by contributions from the oil and gas industry rather than direct government funding.
“Any contract in the industry is expected to contribute one per cent to the financing of this local content agency,” he said, explaining that the policy had helped Nigeria develop indigenous manpower, service companies and operators.
“The solution to Africa’s energy poverty problems lies with Africans. Nobody from outside the continent can say they love Africa more than Africans. We have to take our own destiny in our own hands, and that’s what we’re doing in Nigeria,” Lokpobiri said.
Earlier, Onanga said the main objective of the visit was to study Nigeria’s local content policy and implementation in order to draw lessons that could be applied in the Republic of Congo. “Our wish is to improve local content. That is why we are here in Nigeria,” he said.
Onanga said the delegation comprised officials responsible for upstream petroleum, local content, downstream and gas, as well as representatives of Congo’s national oil company and indigenous companies.
“We came here as a little brother, let’s go to see the big brother and see how they have done the local content. This is why we are here, really getting experience, sharing experience and seeing what you have done here,” the Congolese minister said.
He said Congo was particularly interested in learning how Nigeria had developed its local companies and created mechanisms for retaining value within the country. Onanga expressed optimism that the exchange would benefit both countries and strengthen African cooperation in the oil and gas sector.