According to the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ibe Kachikwu, the Federal Government is in dialogue with major oil giants and banks to raise capital for new oil drilling and to repay $4billion debt accumulated over the years by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
“We are in talks to address all outstanding cash call arrears and restore confidence back to the sector. This will be done through very creative alternate funding schemes…part of efforts to bring the sector to full production,” Kachikwu said.
Kachikwu added that government would also advertise concessions for pipelines and depots next month (March 2016). He lamented over the country’s oil refineries, adding that, for over 20 years, the equipment used had not been changed or maintained. To revamp assets such as refineries he said the country is in talks for partnership agreements with external investors such as Italy’s Eni and oil traders — Vitol and Gunvor.
“We haven’t been able to be sure that if we hold those meetings we can actually walk away with some consensus, and in the absence of that we didn’t think we should, and we thought that given what was happening in terms of… it’s a very funny dynamics because a lot of barrels are tumbling out from non-OPEC markets.
So, the Saudi philosophy is obviously working. But again, it’s not influencing however the pricing which means that whether we like it or not some barrels are also coming in which may be over production by members and non members to cover up whatever is going out,” he said.
Kachikwu said that NNPC is expected to conclude a deal within two months for a new partner to pay up N1.3billion to take over the Atlantic deals.
