Yemisi Izuora/Agency Report
There is the possibility that Nigeria’s oil output may drop by about 15 per cent in 2017.
But this scenario may be averted if the government attracts the needed investment and resolves cash shortages at state oil firms, according to a senior Moody’s analyst.
Nigeria currently produces about 2.1 million barrels per day of oil with foreign and local companies through production sharing contracts and joint ventures.
But projects have been held up because state-oil firm NNPC needs parliamentary and regulatory approval to spend anything.
Officials and lawmakers are often six months late in giving their assent, making proposals irrelevant as costs exceed the original budgets. As a result, unpaid bills have been piling up.
“By 2017, if there’s no more investments oil production will drop by 15 percent affecting jointly the government revenues,” Reuters quoted senior analytical adviser, Africa, at ratings agency Moody’s, Aurelien Mali, to have said.
“So the cash call funding issues for the joint ventures and the long term funding to drive the deep offshore fields is something that will have to be addressed to maintain at least the production levels of 2.1 million,” he told Reuters in Lagos.
President Muhammadu Buhari had pledged to reform the oil sector and end corruption and mismanagement.
He appointed former Exxon executive Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu to head the NNPC and later as minister of state for petroleum while Buhari retained the oil portfolio for himself.