New Telegraph

Stakeholders want efficient fiscal policy for oil, gas sector

In a bid to boost the revenue drive in the oil and gas sector of the economy, stakeholders in sector yesterday called on the Federal Government to evolve an efficient and attractive fiscal policy for the sector, which would help drive investment and infrastructure development in the country.

The stakeholders, who disclosed this at the virtual workshop on, ‘Leveraging Fiscal Regulations to Attract Investments in the Petroleum sector’, argued that except such policy framework is incorporated into the development strategy of the sector, the oil and gas sector would continue to lag behind in fulfilling the revenue potential of the country. Rising from the deliberations, one of such stakeholders’ and Chairman, Energy Institute Nigeria, Mr. Osten Olorunsola, said the oil and gas sector in Nigeria needed a lot of investment to meet with the current global challenges.

He stated that globally, the industry had witnessed decline in product demand and low price regime, adding that only low cost molecules would be able to make it in the market. Olorunsola said the sector needed to be transformed to meet with current trend as the sector was not buoyant as perceived by many. He said: “We need steady revenue, growth in all spheres of the sector and value-oriented leaders. “We need to speed up with legislation to ensure that oil in the ground does not remain there and also create enabling environment for business to thrive. All these will give rise to sustained investment.”

“Beyond competitiveness, we must aim at fiscal profitability. Investment in the sector will be enhanced with good fiscal regulations. We need more transformation in fiscal policy to achieve the desired result.” In her remarks, President, Nigerian Gas Association (NGA), Mrs Audrey Joe- Ezigbo, said Nigeria need to move as a nation that could generate foreign exchange and create employment. The NGA president said while Nigeria oil and gas sector contributed 9.14 per cent to GDP, other oil nation like Angola and Kuwait contributed 50 and 40 per cents respectively to their nation’s GDP.

She said: “Like Nigeria, Egypt has 61 Trillion Cubic Feet (TCF) of gas and 42TCF of gas yet to be discovered. This is small compared to what we have here in Nigeria. “They started importing gas when they saw that domestic production was no longer meeting domestic demand. “Egypt with good policy recognised this and unlocked their economy and had significant discovery and today, they are self sufficient.”

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