A consortium of international banks and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation have signed $3billion finance deals.
Speaking at the 42nd Nigeria annual international conference and exhibition of Society of Petroleum Engineers in Lagos over the weekend, the group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, said this was in a bid to develop and exploit Nigeria’s vast gas reserves.
According to him, “the third party financing deals have been signed with international banks to the tune of $3 billion for the development of oil and gas industry.”
He said Nigeria needed to leverage on its vast mineral wealth in terms of the 37 billion barrels of oil reserves and 199 trillion cubic feet of gas reserves, among others, to prop up other sectors of the economy and promote import substitution in such areas as agriculture, manufacturing, and general services.
He explained that the country needed to be self-sufficient in at least the provision of basic needs and common services.
“We have signed third party financing deals with international banks and new oil and gas development worth $3 billion, despite the degradation in 2016 and 2017. This demonstrates the phase in our industry and the potentials we can
unlock.
“We also executed a Nobel and micro-financing bill of over $700 million from Schlumberger for the development of the 250 million barrels of oil equivalent per day from 165 million barrels of oil under the joint venture investment exploration and production,” Baru said.
