Strategic Roundtable Nigeria 2015

Nigeria

While TOGY’s third Nigerian roundtable event, "Nigeria’s competitiveness in attracting investment", saw leading figures in the energy industry being generally positive on the national fundamentals, concerns about rising costs and a low oil price were raised by participants. The event was sponsored by Schlumberger, Weatherford International and Amni International Petroleum Development Company and was hosted at Eko Hotel, Lagos.

The roundtable gathered the leaders from the industry’s top oil and gas companies and government agencies, including NCDMB executive secretary Ernest Nwapa, Amni International chairman Chief Tunde Afolabi, Energia managing director Felix Amieyeafori, Schlumberger group managing director West Africa Eke U. Eke, Weatherford International managing director Femi D. Thomas, and Saipem managing director Giuseppe Surace, Tenoil CEO Tony Chukwueke and Makon Group CEO Oluseyi Abiodun Makinde. The Oil & Gas Year’s country director for Nigeria chaired the event.

The panelists discussed the challenges, opportunities and solutions related to attracting investment into the country’s oil and gas industry, with a number of key findings and topics emerging throughout the discussion. While challenges including falling global oil prices, rising costs of doing business in Nigeria, and the continued uncertainty surrounding the passage of the country’s Petroleum Industry Bill were brought to the fore, the consensus surrounding the industry’s growth remained optimistic, most notably through a focus on the gains in local content capacity development and the presence of strong investment fundamentals in the market. The international oilfield services companies, represented by Femi Thomas of Weatherford and Eke U. Eke of Schlumberger, brought up concerns related to excessive permit requirements and impractical laws related to the re-export of equipment to neighbouring markets. On the operators’ side, Tony Chukwueke of Tenoil stressed the opportunity for indigenous companies to weather oil price shocks by adopting an integrated approach to the value chain, while his counterpart from Amni International, Chief Tunde Afolabi, countered with a strategy of focusing on core business and creating appropriate partnerships.

Ernest Nwapa, Executive Secretary of NCDMB, spoke to the media after the event. “The Oil & Gas Year’s Strategic Roundtable has once again served as a key catalyst for continued local content development, with this year’s edition serving as a vehicle through which capacity development initiatives and success stories can be showcased to the international investment community. While global market forces including the oil price are affecting everyone, Nigeria is becoming a more attractive destination for investment as it builds a stronger foundation and more fertile investment climate through the development of local capacity within the oil and gas sector and its supporting industries.”

The roundtable will be printed in The Oil & Gas Year Nigeria 2015 and will feature the comments and views shared by the participants throughout the event.

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