Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), a sub-group of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI), has disclosed that Nigeria owes gas producers in the country a whopping $1.3 billion for products supplied.
It has therefore urged the Federal Government to factor the debt as part of its outstanding obligation, as it seeks solutions to the lingering energy poverty in the country and its attendant challenges.
Nathaniel Oyatogun, member Gas Sub-committee of the OPTS, made the disclosure in Abuja on Monday at a National Assembly Capacity Building Workshop organised by the Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) and OPTS.
According to him, it was unfair for the country to owe gas producers such a humongous sum for over 10 years, and still expect them to supply gas adequately to power the country.
Oyatogun urged the Federal Government to collaborate with the gas producers and other relevant stakeholders to work out modalities on how to offset the debt without forking out cash from the country’s coffers, considering that Nigeria is currently cash-strapped and choked by huge sovereign debt.
He said if the funds had been released to the gas producers, they would have been able to scale up production, boost the electricity supply, tackle the energy crisis fiercer, and grow the nation’s economy.
Also speaking at the event, the IPPG Chairman, Mr Abdulrazaq Isa, lamented that investor uncertainty, a core element of the ongoing reforms in the petroleum industry, has not only persisted for a long time but exacerbated by the global energy transition drive and the insecurity in the Niger Delta. This, he added, has led to a significant drop in the nation’s production output.
“Consequently, Nigeria suffers untold collapse in revenue accruable from its vast hydrocarbon resources. It has therefore become imperative for us as an industry to ensure the immediate ramping up of oil and gas production to shore up the nation’s revenue base and generate the much-needed foreign exchange for the attainment of macroeconomic stability”, he stated.
Isa listed key priority areas of focus. to include, the amendment of critical aspects of the PIA, primarily aimed at establishing a strong regulatory and governance framework to guide the effective implementation of the PIA and ensure the intended benefits of the industry-wide reforms are realized.
“Priority area 2 is the enhancement of the security across the Niger Delta to safeguard and build a conducive operating environment to stem crude theft and sustainably address the unprecedented production decline witnessed in recent years.
“Priority Area 3: Establishment of a value-creating midstream and downstream sector to catalyze and rapidly industrialize the Nigerian economy thus significantly growing GDP and boosting job creation”, he explained.
Earlier in his remarks, the representative of the Speaker, House of Representatives, Ado Doguwa, urged experts in the industry to work closely with the national assembly to tackle the plethora of challenges stunting the growth of the petroleum sector.
He hailed the organizers of the program for creating the platform to educate and bring parliamentarians up to speed with events happening in the sector so they can provide legislative solutions where needed.
He said the challenges facing the sector can be collaboratively tackled, just as the national assembly passed the Petroleum Industry Act 2021 as the foundation to plant the sector and by extension, the Nigerian economy on a growth path.
Source- The Sun Newspaper.