BUSINESS Minister: Why we favour local firms in crude oil lifting

The Minister of Petroleum Resources Mrs. Diezani AlisonMadueke said the recent award of term contracts for crude lifting, majorly to indigenous companies, is part of the federal government’s objective to encourage local participation in the oil and gas industry.

Speaking to journalists over the weekend in Abuja, Mrs. AlisonMadueke, who is also the chairman of the NNPC Board, said over 60 percent of the 2014 to 2015 annual term contracts for the lifting of Nigeria’s crude oil were awarded to local firms after a painstaking prequalification process.

The minister said the balance was shared among some international trading companies, refineries and to some countries with bilateral trade agreements with Nigeria.

“When we unveiled the Nigerian content law a few years back, the overriding principle was to grow indigenous capacity in an aggressive manner and I am happy to report that today, in the oil and gas sector, Nigerian content has been placed on the path of irreversible progress,” the minister said. Mrs. Alison-Madueke noted that the award to local players is in line with the aspiration of President Goodluck Jonathan for effective transformation of the petroleum industry.

She said the advent of the Nigerian content law has encouraged indigenous investment in critical infrastructure.

“We have seen robust indigenous investments in Marine vessels of various categories and wholly owned Nigerian vessels have increased astronomically through the years. These vessels are the Category one and Category two types. Investments in reception, storage and distribution facilities such as jetties, depots, trucks, vessels and modern retail outlets have more than doubled over the past few years, and this has helped to increase the nation’s sufficiency level in petrol,” the minister said.