The level of participation and amount of investment being carried out by local companies in the oil gas sector in Nigeria can be increased tremendously if the provision of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) comes on stream.
This is according to the Group Managing Director of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr Andrew Yakubu.
Acknowledging the local capacity of indigenous companies at this year’s Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja, Mr Yakubu said that with the already existing local content law and the eventual passage of the PIB, Nigeria would become the most viable investment destination which will be galvanized by indigenous capacity.
“I am sure what you saw in terms of investments are products of projects that were initiated in the past, projects that are ongoing and projects that have commenced.
“The PIB is supposed to add more value to it and to bring a more sustainable physical regime that will guarantee investment. You can see that we started with players that are predominantly from the west, today we have expanded to all over the world. We have players from the Far East and so on in our activities” he said.
He also gave assurance that “investments will continue to grow and the PIB is expected to give birth to a more sustainable and more permanent physical regime that can be predictable; that investors can look at and factor into their business model before they come in to invest.”
He added, “Nigeria is the place to invest.”