Nigeria is estimated to have lost more than $40 billion or N6.3 trillion investments in the last two years as a result of uncertainties in the oil and gas sector.
Specifically, oil companies have held back over $40 billion worth of investment while waiting to see what happens, sequel to regulatory uncertainty.
Sweeping reforms to taxes and royalties, transparency, local participation and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, have been promised since 2007.
According to estimates from the Senate Committee on the upstream oil industry, investments of at least $28 billion in the oil and gas sector have been lost or deferred since 2010.
Similarly, uncertainties are holding back Shell Petroleum Development Company’s (SPDC) planned investment of about $30 billion in two offshore deep water projects in Nigeria.
At the just concluded Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG-13) conference held in Abuja, Mutiu Sunmonu, Managing Director of SPDC, said it was regrettable that Nigeria was losing huge revenues and investments, due to oil theft and bunkering because of uncertainties.
Though Sunmonu did not mention the projects where the fund would be deployed to, he stated that “SPDC would rather wait for stable and right conditions before committing finances.”
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