Source- Nation
The arrangement is being concluded for the payment of the first oil derivation cash to Lagos State after being declared an oil producing state by the Federal Government last year, it was learned.
The Lagos State Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Olawale Oluwo said that the money is ready, adding that the state was only waiting for the agencies responsible to do the needful.
Oluwo said: “The first oil export has happened. The derivation has been calculated. It is the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission(RMAFC) that we are waiting on now to give that certification so it can be paid. But it is ready, and the money is available with the RMAFC.”
He said Ibile Oil & Gas Corporation, the business arm of the Lagos State oil and gas operations, has concluded setting up its structures and has gone into the marketing of the new oil firm for operation and partnerships, saying the oil firm will play in all the oil and gas value chain.
“They are into the downstream, midstream and upstream. They have been mandated to freely invest anywhere in the world and intervene in any area of business. However, the firm has no done any project. The company just started about five months ago. They have put their structures and strategies in place.
“Currently, they are moving into business development, they are marketing. They are doing a front end work and sometime later this year they will go into major projects. On technical partner, the company has the flexibility to partner with anybody or firm. It will not have a single technical partner. The technical partner should be based on a project by project,” he added.
The energy commissioner also stated that Lagos has many oil fields that have not been allocated. He stated that offshore Lagos we have almost 12 oil fields of which five have been allocated.
The five fields include Sunlink, Crownwell, Aje and Optimum Lagos, and they were awarded over the years.
“We still have about nine fields that are yet to be allocated. As you know Lagos State doesn’t have the powers to allocate or offer to bid for the fields. The state government can only continue the advocacy,” he added.
Oluwo, on the sideline of the inauguration of National Executive Council members of the Oil and Gas Trainers’ Association of Nigeria (OGTAN) in Lagos, where he represented Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, noted that the state places a high value on human capital.
He said Lagos expects that the discovery of oil would lead to massive investment in the state, adding that discovery confirms the prospectively of the Dahomey Basin and calls for the need to increase exploration there.