The Secretary General of organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC), Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, on Sunday in Baghdad, Iraq said there is an urgent need for fresh investment in oil sector stressing that about $10 trillion will be required between now and 2040 due to ongoing expansion in the industry.
“Overall, we see oil-related investment requirements of around $10 trillion over the period to 2040,” Barkindo said while delivering a speech at the 3rd Iran Energy Forum, with the theme, Iraq Post ISIS – Towards an Effective Energy Sector and Economic Diversity.
Nigeria is expected to benefit from this projected investment requirements as the country continue to prospect for fresh investment into its every sector of the industry from gas exploration, transportation, transmission to power generation, industry use and crude exploration for global market.
It will be recalled that the Federal government stated in its medium and long term strategic initiative tagged “The 7 Big Wins revealed that it will initiate capital investments into of midstream and downstream assets e.g. pipelines, depots, refineries.
This initiatives are expected to be driven by investments from the private sectors even as the hitherto joint venture concept initially operated ran into problems as the government was unable to meet its cash investment requirements.
However, the recent revelations from Dr. Barkindo who said confidence has started returning to the industry, stressing that there is a need to ensure that this positive sentiment is maintained is an indication that the much need foreign investment may soon hit the shores of the Nigeria oil sector.
Speaking on how to translate the development to impact the industry positively on the long term, the OPEC scribe said, “It is important to highlight that these recent decisions should not only be viewed as a short-term necessity. We need to view these actions as vital to long-term oil market stability and the necessary investments required for the world’s energy future.”
Dr. Barkindo while commending the industry stakeholders for support OPEC’s strategies of reviving the sector through production cut, said conformity with the decisions by all participating countries has been very encouraging.
According to him, “For January 2017, OPEC and non-OPEC nations achieved a conformity level of 86 per cent. And in February, the overall conformity improved further to 94 per cent.”
He however noted that there is still room for further improvement. “ Each participating nation needs to look at their individual voluntary contribution, and remember that the decisions taken last year were on the basis of fairness, equity and transparency.”