BUSINESS Nigeria negotiates $15bn oil, ‘Infrastructural devt, access to gas investments with India funds will end recession’
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, yesterday in India, negotiated a $15 billion investment with the Indian government.
The minister, who is currently on a three-day visit to India, concluded talks on investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector in a bilateral meeting with his Indian counterpart in charge of petroleum and natural gas, Shri Dharmendra Pradhan.
Both countries have agreed to work on a memorandum of understanding to facilitate investments by India in the Nigerian oil and gas sector and specifically in areas such as term contract, participation of Indian companies in the refining sector, oil and gas marketing and upstream ventures.
Nigeria’s petroleum ministry spokesman Idang Alibi said in a statement that other areas are the development of gas infrastructure and the training of oil and gas personnel in Nigeria.
The MoU is expected to be firmed up in December 2016 during the 12th International Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition, Petrotech-2016, at New Delhi.
Both ministers also agreed to strengthen the existing cooperation in the oil and gas sector, and in particular to explore investment opportunities for Indian public and private sector companies in Nigeria.
Nigeria is one of the largest trading partners of India in Africa which is dominated by import of crude oil and gas from Nigeria.
Meanwhile, Nigeria is expecting a rise in oil production of 22 per cent by the end of December, to 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd) from the present level.
Speaking in India yesterday, Kachikwu said a force majeure on all Nigeria’s oil fields would be lifted by December or January 2017.
“Nigeria has a bit of a cash flow problem right now. Our reserves are not as strong as we want them. The impact of that is the value of the naira (currency) is coming down. So we are trying is to leverage on the assets we have to receive immediate cash,” Kachikwu said.
He said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which has agreed to cut world output to rescue prices, has however allowed a production window of 1.8 million bpd to 2.2 million bpd for recession-hit Nigeria. FLIGHT
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