Whopping $18bn to be pumped into Nigeria’s oil and gas sector — Wunti

The Chief Upstream Investment Officer of the NNPCL Upstream Investment Management Services (NUMIS), Mr Bala Wunti said at the 22nd edition of the NOG Energy week that a staggering sum of $18 billion would be invested in the country’s oil and gas sector before the end of 2024.

Wunti, during the panel session at the NOG week in Abuja on Wednesday, said the partnership between NNPC and SNEPCO will yield a whooping $8bn, while the synergy with Total in restarting the Prowei project will rake in $2bn investment.

The theme of the session is, “The investors perspective: Assessing the attractiveness of Nigeria’s energy sector.”

Wunti noted that with the revitalization of the Agbami Gas project and the various partnership outlined earlier, the investment outlook within this year and next year would hit $18bn to $20bn.

He said: “About 4 days ago, Total in partnership with NNPC launched Tender for project, that tender will rake in Foreign Direct Investment.

“SNEPCO is about to take a Final Investment Decision on Bonga And that will also give us an investment in the neighbourhood of $4bn. Going back to total, we are restarting Preowei project, and we expect about $2bn investment.

“We are significantly advancing Agbami Gas project- and that is bringing in significant investment.

“Put all these together, we see an outlook within this year and next year somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 to $ 20bn investment. Indeed the opportunities abound.

“A lot of effort is going on between the regulators and the investors. What is key is that there is still a gap in infrastructure.”

He also spoke on President Tinubu’s readiness to create a conducive environment for business to thrive.

“If we need government help, we will go to government and get help. What we are lucky today, and I think we should take advantage of it- under the current President Tinubu.

“He is ready for business and he said, ‘don’t tell me what it is, just tell me how you are going to do’ and here is what I want us to do.

“We don’t have to create project specific fiscal, but we need to create project specific packages and then we document that,” Wunti also said.