By Obas Esiedesa, Abuja
The Federal Government has tasked indigenous oil companies to ramp up production in order to meet both domestic and export demands.
The Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri who made the call in Abuja when he received the management of Renaissance Africa Energy, pointed out that Nigeria has the most skilled labour force in the oil and gas industry in Africa.
Currently, Nigeria’s oil production has stagnated at 1.5 million barrels per day despite a budget benchmark of 2.1 million barrels per for 2025.
Lokpobiri expressed confidence that takeover of assets belonging to International Oil Companies by Nigerian firms would lead to an increase in oil production.
He pointed out that the takeover of the assets meant critical decisions by the companies would now be taken in Nigeria rather than in far away headquarters.
“Divestment is a global practice. If you want to attract investments, you must also allow people to divest when they want to. I’m proud to say that under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu these divestments were basically one of the obstacles to the flow of investments”, he stated.
While expressing confidence in the capacity of Nigerians to manage the divested assets efficiently, he said: “If you unveil Shell, if you unveil ExxonMobil, if you unveil Chevron, if you unveil all the IOCs, beyond the name and maybe a few of their top management, all those you see who had created these companies over the years are Nigerians”.
He urged Renaissance management to prove their mettle by increasing the company’s oil production.
“In fact, I’m looking forward to visiting you guys in your office in Lagos, sitting with you to know your plan. What is your plan to ramp up? What are you doing now? If you’re doing 200,000 barrels (per day), what can we support you with so that you can do 300,000? And I know that you can do a lot more. And so, our expectation is that you will have a clear roadmap on the way you want to go and where you want to be”, he added.
Earlier, Renaissance CEO, Dr Tony Attah noted that Renaissance is a proudly Nigerian company with an objective of performing better than Shell in managing the divested assets.
“Shell did its exploration, exploitation and production to develop its own countries. But we as Renaissance are here to do exactly the same business perhaps do it better to develop our own country Nigeria. I think for me personally that is where the delineation and difference comes in.
“It is about time that Nigeria takes that centre stage where we are called the giants of Africa. I know there are still one or two areas where we can still step forward if you go to the entertainment industry, the telco perhaps the banking but I think energy is one area where if you look at all the indices we are leading but we are leading based on data. But we want to lead and lead practically and be the energy leader in Africa”, he added.
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