The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has signed Memorandums of Understanding with several Chinese firms for new investments, spanning five years, in the oil and gas industry.
These investments worth more than $80billion will cover pipelines, refineries, gas and power, facility refurbishments and upstream financing.
Kachikwu, who spoke to Thisday on Wednesday, June 29, from China said the agreements had been executed during the three-day roadshow in the Asian country to attract investments to Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
He said: “I can confirm that we had a successful outing and finally raised investment commitments and signed MoUs worth $80 billion.
“Out of this, $10 billion approximately was raised on the sides with our steer and push for two Nigerian companies – Delta Tek and Salvic Petroleum – while the balance of $70 billion includes MoUs signed by investors and financiers for projects with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).”
Kachikwu also revealed that other than the agreements executed for investments totalling $80 billion, he also got commitments from Sinopec and China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) to commit to further investments in Nigeria’s upstream oil sub-sector to the tune of $20 billion, which would be concluded in the next few months.
This, he said, would effectively bring the total amount of prospective investments by Chinese firms over a five-year period to over $100 billion.
