An oil and gas expert, Henry Adigun, has predicted that Nigeria will face retrogression as from 2021, if nothing is done to arrest the situation where market forces decide the
earnings of the nation from oil and gas.
Mr. Adigun, who, while speaking during a one day workshop on the need for the Passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill(PIB), organised by Foster, an organisation championing the passage of the Bill, said that the nation may become like Venezuela, since it’s hard currency earnings are predicated on the forces of demand and supply.
Stating that about 85 percent of the country’s foreign earnings are dependent on these, he added that the current government’s failures to execute recommendations bye oil and gas experts have added to present woeful situation of the nation.
The expert, informed that other experts, had, upon the assumption of office by the current government, advised it in a forecast that the industry would experience a down turn as well as the need for there to be an expedited action on the passage of the Bill, but that the government refused to heed the warning and advice.
Mr. Adigun, who further stated that the current decision makers in the country know little or nothing about the oil and gas sector as well as care little about the industry, said that the decision makers rather than look for ways of ensuring stability in the industry created an additional 28 agencies, thereby shooting government’s expenditure by 35 percent.
” The economy is overloaded with confused workers in the country and the executive arm of the government expends more than 86 percent of the country’s proceed.”
” Failure of the refineries is due to the failure of governance. The running of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), is N50 billion while the landing cost of refined products is N480 billion,” he posited, while asking the rationale behind such an expenditure.
He said that the clamour for the passage of the PIB is because it will bring about some forms of structural changes in the governance, administrative as well as the fiscal sectors of the industry.
Adigun stressed that in the past 10 years the nation has not witnessed any meaningful investment in the oil and gas sector but rather optimisation and divestments which has lead to decline of resources within the period.
This, he said, is due to poor governance and uncertainty which was caused by the possibility of the existing framework not being feasible for setting up business.
Against this backdrop, he added, the urgency is now on the nation, since the PIB, has been made to create good governance, create competitiveness and grow the economy.