NNPC spent $25bn on procurement in five years - Barkindo

By Ayomide Owonibi, Lagos

Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation’s
(NNPC) refinery at Eleme, Port-
Harcourt, Rivers State.The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mr. Mohammed Sanusi Barkindo, has stated that the cooperation spent $25 billion on the procurement of materials over the last five years.

He also added that oil and gas operations in the country were estimated to gulp an average of $11 billion annually thus making the sector a haven for investors.

Barkindo made the disclosure at the second Nigeria-Japan Business and Investment Forum, which took place in Tokyo, Japan. The NNPC boss told Japanese investors and Nigerian businessmen that the next phase of the expansion in the oil and gas industry would create significant investment opportunities for investors from the Asian country.

He said that about $25 billion would be spent on procurement of materials, manufac-turing and equipment leasing over the next five years. Also, he said that over $8 billion would be earmarked for fabrication and construction in the upstream sector over the same period while over $500 million per annum would be spent on engineering design projects over the next five years.

Barkindo said that service sector opportunities exist in the banking, insurance, shipping and logistics. He urged the Japanese investors to give meaning to the Kyoto Protocol by investing in upstream flare reduction projects, gas transportation network integrity and electricity generation and optimisation.

He acknowledged that Japanese companies had played a major role in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, adding that the expansion in the sector would create a huge opportunity to leverage the Japanese technical and entrepreneurial capacity.

He said that when compared to other countries in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Nigeria’s investment level over the last few years ranks high.

He noted that beyond the current capacity, Nigeria’s hydrocarbon potential, according to the US Geological Survey, holds huge investment opportunities.
He said that estimation of undiscovered oil and gas reserves potential of 169 billion boe and 600TCF respectively were large enough to support a sustained capacity expansion as envisaged in the strategy.

Barkindo said that apart from the Niger Delta basin and the Ultra Deep Basin of the Niger Delta, significant potential existed in Anambra, Benue, Bida, Chad, Dahomey Embayment/Benin and Sokoto Basins.