As one of the biggest economies in Africa, Nigeria is supposed to be in the forefront of developing and securing new projects that serve as models for the rest of the continent. This should especially be true in the petroleum sector where the country sources most of its revenue from.
However, even in that sector, the country seems to be losing ground to other countries on the continent. For example, while Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) projects in Nigeria continue to flounder, other African countries are making great strides forward.
Italian oil giant, Eni, and others recently signed a $7bn investment to export natural gas from Mozambique from what is only the world’s third and Africa’s first floating LNG project in the Rovuma Basin.
This situation is affecting the future of Nigeria in the continental and global LNG market as it accounts for less and less market share. These quotes by experts explain why this is happening and what it means for the industry.
On the effect of the Mozambique plant on Nigeria’s LNG market….
1 “The Mozambique LNG plant threatens NLNG market share within the context of the current LNG soft market.”-Prof. Wumi Iledare, the President of Energy Economics
2 “Nigeria’s market share in the global market had continued to drop as new entrants entered the market”- David Ige, Chief Executive Officer, GasInvest Limited.
3 “The Mozambique plant will affect Nigeria seriously in the sense that we have more competition. Normally, we have long-term contracts. The ones that are going to be renewed in the next few years will face a very stiff competition. This is just the first one; there are other LNG schemes that are coming out from East Africa.”- ex-Project Director, Uquo gas field development, Alhaji Abdullahi Bukar.
On why the situation is developing in this manner, everyone seems to agree that the dragging of the Petroleum Industry Bill is playing a major role in deterring investors from the Nigerian scene…
4 “The review of the NLNG Act by the National Assembly is causing a challenge for the Federal Government and the IOCs and it is sending wrong signals to the international community about how business is done in the country,”- Dr. Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director, NNPC.
5 “Regarding Brass LNG FID, Nigeria missed the opportunity. You can blame it more on the dilly-dallying with the Petroleum Industry Bill. The PIB stayed too long on the political stage and created significant industry uncertainty with higher project exposure to failure.”- Prof. Wumi Iledare, the President of Energy Economics