London, UK (30 April 2018) - Lagos: Africa Oil Week is thrilled to announce that Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources will be present at Africa Oil Week to drive forward transformative projects across the continent. The Africa infrastructure deficit sits at US$90Billion which poses a huge challenge to investors and operators alike. “The infrastructure bottleneck is a challenge that faces every country and sector across the continent” says Paul Sinclair, Conference Director of Africa Oil Week. During the 2017 Africa Oil Week speakers from Super-majors and operators alike re-emphasised the key issues facing the petroleum sector through a lack of continent wide hard and soft infrastructure.

There are significant opportunities for the Nigerian oil sector. The launch of the 7Big Wins has altered the funding capacity for the upstream sector which has been a strong incentive for additional investment in the upstream sector. Projects like Egina deepwater project, worth $15bn; Zabazaba, $10bn; Bonga, $10bn, and others have put investments at over $40bn potential investments over the next five years. Dr. Kachikwu says, "Revamping our infrastructure is necessary to capitalize on these opportunities. What we need is to get the policy thrust and the incentives to drive the policy thrust.”

Hon. Minister, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, an advocate for attracting foreign direct investment into the Oil and gas sector will be attending Africa Oil Week to launch the sectors’ Transformative Project Forum which is designed to broker transactions and partnerships on some of the most pressing infrastructure projects in Africa. To launch the Transformative Project Forum, the Hon Minister, will be opening a series of case studies and roundtables exploring case studies on Egina, Bonga South West, AKK Pipeline and many more. With this, the forum will host a number of bankable infrastructure projects that will drive the future development of the African Oil and Gas sector.  

Paul Sinclair went on to add “The future success of the African Oil and Gas space is dependent on a sustainable future based on a myriad of different factors. The infrastructure conundrum is one that the continent needs to address with the global finance community which will be addressed throughout Africa Oil Week.” Across the 3 days, the Nigerian government will also be welcoming bilateral B2G meetings with investors and operators who are interested in funding and operating within the Nigerian Oil and Gas sector to meet the regions growing demands.

Dr. Kachikwu hopes to ensure Nigeria is self-sufficient in oil by 2019. “The challenges facing oil companies is very different today. Investment in oil has got to provide the resources to power this country; a transparent operational environment and employment opportunities for locals. Nigeria needs to be seen a serious player and fixing how the state runs the oil sector is the key to the development of the Nigerian economy”, Dr. Kachikwu added.

 

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