Nigeria Records Major Breakthroughs in Oil & Gas with 7BigWins Initiative

ABUJA, Nigeria, June 14, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- The Federal Government of Nigeria has announced major breakthroughs in its Oil and Gas sector after implementing for three years a strategic 7BigWins initiative it launched in 2016.

The biggest achievements, stated the country's Ministry of Petroleum Resources, is the restoration of transparency and credibility in the sector which boosted the confidence of local and international investors.

According to a special report by the ministry, the 7BIGWins project has increased the efficient and seamless operation of the oil and gas industry.

The initiative was midwifed by the immediate past Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachukwu, and supported by President Muhammadu Buhari. It covers Policy and Regulation, Accelerated Income Streams, Gas Regulation, Refineries and Local Production Capacity, Niger Delta and security, Transparency and Efficiency, Stakeholder Management and International Coordination.

"At the moment, we have new policies and guidelines that we have gazetted.This shows a lot of transparency and gives investors a lot of confidence because they know what you are expecting from them," said the Ministry's Permanent Secretary, Dr. Folashade Yemi-Esan.

The report said the initiative also led to the increase in Nigeria's daily crude oil production capacity from 800,000 barrels per day in 2015 to 2.1 million barrels in 2019, with a target to increase it to 3 million barrels per day. It also entrenched transparency in the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation with the consistent monthly publication of reports since 2015.

Other achievements included the generation of revenue for government by initiating capital investment in midstream and downstream assets as well as the institution of best practices in the processes of the industry.

On refinery upgrade and refining capacity, the Ministry stated that refinery policies are being pushed to ensure private sector delivery of between 700kbd to 1mkbd refining capacity per day over next 3 to 4 years largely on private sector investment basis. However, the Ministry still reiterated the delays in fixing government owned refineries and expressed the optimism that the next four years of the Buhari administration will
address the challenge.

Also, the Ministry said the gas flare commercialization programme launched under the 7 big wins programme will consolidate the gas flare exit objectives of the industry. Gas flare has been reduced by 70 percent through current and historical programmes, investments and through reinvention. The flare commercialization programme hopes to eliminate the balance flares by 2021 well ahead of UN target date of 2030.

"We created a level of trust and believe in our system to the point where we are able to help elect a Secretary General for OPEC and our contributions continued to be very valued, while the absolute focus is to get the four refineries working to their full capacity of 450,000 barrels back on track using private capital," the report emphasized.

According to Dr. Yemi-Esan, the initiative is in collaboration with industry experts and leading organisations such as FOSTER, the European Union and Department for International Department (DFID).

"Before 2015, the oil and gas industry had a lot of challenges, especially fuel scarcity, coupled with a lot of distrust because people were not sure of happenings there and there was no transparency," she said.

Dr Yemi-Esan noted that new policies arrived at, have been gazzeted to underline transparency towards boosting the confidence of investors.

to help elect a Secretary General for OPEC and our contributions continued to be very valued, while the absolute focus is to get the four refineries working to their full capacity of 450,000 barrels back on track using private capital," the report emphasized.

According to Dr. Yemi-Esan, the initiative is in collaboration with industry experts and leading organisations such as FOSTER, the European Union and Department for International Department (DFID).

"Before 2015, the oil and gas industry had a lot of challenges, especially fuel scarcity, coupled with a lot of distrust because people were not sure of happenings there and there was no transparency," she said.

Dr Yemi-Esan noted that new policies arrived at, have been gazzeted to underline transparency towards  boosting  the  confidence of  investors.

SOURCE Federal Government of Nigeria