Amid uncertainties regarding foreign investment in Nigeria, Shell has taken the opportunity to invest $5bn in the country’s offshore oil production.
hell is considering a $5bn (£3.99bn) offshore oil investment opportunity in Nigeria and has pledged to spend an additional $1bn over the next five to ten years to increase natural gas output in Nigeria to meet rising domestic demand and boost exports, Reuters reported.
In a closed meeting between the Shell Group management, led by the director of Shell’s global integrated gas and upstream, Zoe Yujnovich, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu highlighted the company’s significant role in the country’s oil and gas sector.
According to Reuters, Yujnovich stated that Shell has “an imminent $5bn investment opportunity” in the Bonga North oil project. “I am keen to make that investment as soon as possible. We want to continue and build a pipeline of new investments in Nigeria,” she said.
In the past few years, Nigeria’s economy has suffered due to falling oil production resulting from underinvestment, crude oil theft and pipeline vandalism. In September 2022, the country lost 470,000 barrels of crude oil per day worth almost $700m (N529.86bn) monthly because of oil theft.
Previously, African environmentalists raised concerns that the continent’s oil, gas and mineral-rich states might end up with stranded assets.
“There is no bottleneck that is too difficult for us to remove in our determined march toward making Nigeria the African haven for large-scale investments,” Reuters quoted Tinubu as saying.
Tinubu won the elections in February this year and pledged to expand Nigerian oil and gas production after years of inefficiencies and thefts in the oil and gas sector administered by former president Muhammadu Buhari. Burhari’s government had struggled to capitalise on Nigeria’s potential energy resources, both renewables and oil and gas.
The current Nigerian President has continuously highlighted foreign direct investment opportunities in key labour-intensive sectors and seeks to attract global capital to expand revenue and job creation.
Tinubu also used the G20 platform in India this September to speak about investment opportunities and intends to resolve “all investment-related issues” to ramp up the country’s revenue.
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