Nigeria, Chinese Firms Seals $80bn Oil Sector Investment Deals

The federal government has signed Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) worth over $80 billion dollars with various Chinese firms to be spent on investments in oil and gas infrastructure.

The money, according to a statement on Thursday by the Technical Assistant to the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), on Special Projects, (New Media), would be spent specifically on pipelines, refineries, power, facility refurbishment and upstream sub-sector of the oil and gas industry.

The Corporation said the achievement which is in its bid to bridge the infrastructure funding gaps in the Nigerian oil and gas sector, followed a first of its kind road show which was organised in China.

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, revealed these at the ongoing NNPC China Investors’ Roadshow organised by the Corporation to attract investors in China and the Asian sub region to invest in the Nigerian oil and gas sector.

Kachckwu who led a team of top management of the Corporation and key industry stakeholders to showcase the investment opportunities which abound in the oil and gas value chain in Nigeria to the investors, said it is with a view to attracting funding and partnerships that would turn around the sector and place it among the best in the world.

Speaking during the plenary of a special investors’ roundtable which had in attendance over 200 Chinese investors with key focus on the oil and gas sector, the minister reiterated that the roadshow was organised as a follow up to the working visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to China in April, 2016.

He further commended the efforts and resolve of the President whose steer and support in ensuring that there is a marked transformation of the oil and gas industry, has inspired the management to work towards the institutionalising of focus, accountability, commitment and transparency at the corporation.

According to the statement, some of the companies that are involved in the MoUs include NORINCO, CINDA, CNOOC, SINOPEC/ADDAX, ICC-NDRC amongst others.

Meanwhile, the International Cooperation Commission (ICC) of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), in charge of implementing cooperation between Chinese governments, foreign governments and organisations have committed to developing an overarching master plan for the Nigerian oil and gas sector that will include a detailed feasibility study of current status of existing infrastructure in the industry.

The NDRC said it will also develop bankable projects that would attract Chinese investors on this Government-to-Government platform. This initiative is expected to move Nigeria to a much more profitable and efficient state as the master plan would form the basis of massive inflow of further investment from Chinese companies into the sector.

At the end of the plenary, Kachikwu expressed his gratitude to the Chinese government and investors for the show of support which reflects the growing international confidence in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector following major reform which has been overseen under his leadership as both Group Managing Director of NNPC and Minister of State, Petroleum Resources over the last seven months and also the belief in the government and integrity of President Buhari by foreign governments and investors.

He further noted that the China roadshow is the first of many investor roadshows intended for the raising of funds to support the oil and gas infrastructure roadmap, adding that more road shows have been slated for India and the Gulf States.