FG urged to loosen regulation in gas sector

Amidst an outcry over the payment of multiple fees in the oil and gas industry, an indigenous operator, Neconde Energy Limited, has restated the difficult terrain of Nigeria’s tough regulatory and commercial environment, warning that the country risks losing much-needed capital inflows to more business-friendly destinations unless it dismantles entrenched bureaucratic bottlenecks and reviews its […]

Amidst an outcry over the payment of multiple fees in the oil and gas industry, an indigenous operator, Neconde Energy Limited, has restated the difficult terrain of Nigeria’s tough regulatory and commercial environment, warning that the country risks losing much-needed capital inflows to more business-friendly destinations unless it dismantles entrenched bureaucratic bottlenecks and reviews its regulatory stance on gas pricing.

The acting Managing Director, and Gas Asset Manager, Chichi Emenike, said this while speaking at the sidelines of the ongoing Nigerian Oil and Gas 2025 Conference in Abuja.

Speaking during the interview, the operator, who oversees production OML 42, a major onshore asset in the Niger Delta, said most of the financing currently sustaining Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is sourced privately, while government indecision and institutional delays continue to stifle progress.

“If you look at the oil and gas industry today, whilst the government is still trying to figure out how it will attract financing on its side, most of the financing that has been moving the industry so far has been coming from the private sector,” she said.

“Financing is not Red Cross money. It is brought in to make a profit. So if you are bringing capital, you must be sure it can breathe. We are talking about operational bottlenecks that need to be unbundled, if we are serious. Operational bottlenecks, like I call them. We need to reduce it.”

Citing recurring delays and “multiplicity of fees” imposed by various regulatory agencies, the operator said the cost of doing business in Nigeria’s upstream sector is extremely high, and sometimes stifling for even the most resilient investors.

“You deal with this agency, then that one, and then another. There is multiplicity of fees. There are fees that must be paid in dollars. Sometimes it gets very stifling if you are not careful as a business person,” she said.

“There’s a lot of rent and regulatory fees, the minister said it’s around 273 levies but I think it’s around 500.”

She welcomed recent policy statements from the Tinubu administration aimed at reforming the sector, particularly the signing of new executive orders and leadership changes at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, but insisted that such reforms must be felt on the ground.