‘Wrong contracting cycle threatens $100m oilfield investments’

A former president of the Nigerian Society of Chemical Engineers (NSChE), Dr. John Erinne, has said that over $100 million investments in the oilfield chemical sub-sector of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry is under severe threat due to the country’s awkward contracting cycle.

He spoke at the Second National Oil and Gas Production/Process Treatment Chemical seminar in Lagos, where he noted that the development was frustrating and had subjected the investments to uncertainty.

He added that stakeholders were rising against this major threat to business worsened by longer-thannecessary tendering cycle in the country.

He emphasised the need for government to maintain very balanced regulatory regime; workable and beneficial to all in the treatment of chemical arm of the midstream sector.

He said: “You have to note that those regulations meant to protect people and businesses don’t end up strangulating them. This makes you to lose the entire essence. So you have to balance it somewhere in order to get the desired result. So, that is the most important thing we desire from government and that is key in creating the enabling environment for businesses to thrive.”

One other area the seminar focused on which many of the stakeholders are interested in is infrastructure and facilities but access to funding is difficult.

“Commercial banks don’t have the kind of funds that are suitable for that kind of investment and where they have, interest rates are extremely unfavourable to the investors, so we need government to assist in ensuring that investors in productive ventures can have access to reasonable funding,” Erinne said.