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Q&A<br />
<strong>BUSINESS</strong> A.M. <strong>FEB</strong>RUARY, MONDAY 05 - SUNDAY 11, <strong>2018</strong><br />
THE MONDAY INTERVIEW 17<br />
INSIGHTS FROM NIGERIAN AND INTERNATIONAL <strong>BUSINESS</strong> & CORPORATE LEADERS<br />
disregard the policy. Whether, it is Shell, Agip or any other company,<br />
we want genuine capacity building and content building.<br />
Do you monitor the implementation of the local content<br />
policy in Nigeria and what’s the penalty for those that<br />
don’t practice it?<br />
If you see anyone not practising the law, let us know, we will<br />
follow it up. People can report and we go to check and it is<br />
not true. As long as there is capability and capacity in the<br />
country then there is a problem, but if there is no capability<br />
and capacity and some body complains, because we don’t<br />
want people to be five ‘per centers’. We want genuine capacity<br />
building, genuine local content.<br />
Looking at other member countries, how can you compare<br />
the extent of implementation of the local content policy<br />
with what obtains in Nigeria.<br />
We do much better than most countries and also when<br />
compared to others. Go to Kenya, the level of awareness is<br />
not much, Ghana has taken our local content Act, Uganda<br />
has copied our local content Act too, so the drive is there. Just<br />
look at America when President Trump said you must buy<br />
made in America, is that not local content act? So it is what<br />
is going on all over the world.<br />
Now that you mention America, is there anything government<br />
can do to encourage the implementation of the local<br />
content policy?<br />
The only thing government can do is to ensure that the act is<br />
properly enforced, monitored and sanctions applied where<br />
necessary.<br />
Even with government policies, it seems to most Nigerian’s<br />
that Nigerian companies have not been able to be at par with<br />
the international oil companies (IOC’s) in the affairs of the<br />
energy and oil sector. What has been the special thing about<br />
IOC’s? How come they are dominant in the oil sector?<br />
You should understand that this business was started by them,<br />
the Shell, the Chevron, they started this business and along the<br />
line many of us worked with the multi-nationals , learnt some of<br />
the few things and came back and started on our own. So, it will<br />
also take some time to build to the extent of leveling up with them.<br />
What can we use to jumpstart it, instead of taking time, say<br />
5,10 years for our local people to meet up with them and develop<br />
the sector in the country. What can be done to quickly<br />
grow the sector?<br />
We can jumpstart it with policy. Government can come now and<br />
say, all FPSO’s must be built in Nigeria. That is policy statement,<br />
“<br />
Local content is<br />
now a law, so every<br />
company must abide<br />
with it, else they face<br />
stiff penalties<br />
“<br />
it will get the Samsung, the Kempels, the biggest ship players in<br />
the world to come and set up here and that can generate more<br />
than a million jobs. That is policy statement, if the policy statement<br />
says now that all the drilling rigs to be used in Nigeria must<br />
be built in Nigeria, all FPSOs, floating, production and storage<br />
vessels must be built in Nigeria, You will start seeing the biggest<br />
shipping companies all over the world setting up here in our<br />
coast and that is where you create a lot of employment opportunities,<br />
quality jobs in Nigeria. So, policy statements can change<br />
everything. That was what Brazil did. Brazil says any FPSOs to<br />
be used in their country must be built in Brazil, they took that<br />
decision 15 years ago and till today, everything is built in Brazil.<br />
What has your association done to influence government<br />
into adopting those positions?<br />
You know we are an advocacy group, we continue talking but at<br />
the end of the day, decisions are made by the government. So,<br />
our duty is to continue to talk, continue to advocate, educate but<br />
we are not the ones to take the decisions.<br />
Government said oil majors should relocate their headquarters<br />
to the areas of their operation. What’s your take on it?<br />
I don’t want to get involved with that because I think we should<br />
first of all create an enabling environment. Once you create an<br />
enabling environment where business will operate freely, you<br />
don’t need to beg anybody to relocate. So, let the government<br />
first create an enabling environment where nobody will be kidnapped,<br />
where the sanctity of life and property is protected,<br />
companies will generally move there, it’s a natural phenomenon.<br />
You don’t create things by force. lt’s just like Foreign Direct<br />
Investment (FDI). If you want people to invest in your country,<br />
you create an enabling environment. The issue of forcing people<br />
to relocate is not the way of doing things. You create an enabling<br />
environment so that businesses will move.<br />
The Liquified Natural Gas sub-sector is still a buyer’s market<br />
as reliance on renewable energy gains tractions . What’s the<br />
outlook for the LNG market?<br />
No. LNG is still there, the market is still there. The only thing we<br />
need to do as a country is to lock in key buyers because people are<br />
setting up LNGs all over the world, so we should try and lock in a lot<br />
of key buyers. You know LNG markets, you can sign contracts for 15<br />
years, the buyers can sign contract for 15 years, 20 years.<br />
How can the local market improve?<br />
We want activities because if there are no projects, there are no<br />
jobs. We want the equipment people to be working, we want to<br />
create employment, A lot of Nigerians to be empowered. If you<br />
watch, after Egina FPSO, the vessel that just arrived, if there is<br />
no other projects, most of the capacities and capabilities already<br />
built will be lying fallow and that would be disastrous. We need<br />
as a country continuously sustainable activities. There have to be<br />
projects, rig count in the country is very low, and we are not drilling<br />
enough. We must keep the people busy and when we keep<br />
people busy, it would affect everybody. If Nigeria is producing<br />
4 million barrels per day, we would generate a lot of income. lf<br />
we have a lot more reserve, our credit rating would be higher. We<br />
need to create a lot of indigenous oil and gas producing companies,<br />
we need to create a lot of oil and gas service companies to<br />
create millions of employment and that is at the heart of PETAN<br />
because we are wasting a lot of opportunities. There are no opportunities<br />
for youths and for a country like Nigeria that has produced<br />
crude oil for 50 years and still imports petrol, does it make<br />
sense? Is it rocket science, no. We need to make changes.<br />
What is the future of PETAN, what do you visualize in 5 to 10<br />
years’ time for the Nigerian oil and gas industry?<br />
I visualize a situation where 50 per cent of the Nigerian production<br />
is going to come from indigenous companies, l visualize a<br />
future where our FPSO would be made and fabricated in the<br />
country, a country where we would never have fuel scarcity, a<br />
country where we would not import petrol or diesel, a country<br />
with 24 hrs power supply, self-sufficiency in energy, a country<br />
where what we make in the oil and gas sector is used to develop<br />
other sectors properly, get the educational system working well,<br />
equip our universities, secondary schools, primary schools,<br />
have excellent centers for research. I want a future that is very<br />
bright for our children where they would have quality education<br />
with quality jobs waiting for them after school.
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