The Federal Government, through the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Oil), Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri has expressed its commitment to deepening ties with the United Arab Emirate (UAE).
Deputy Director, Press and Public Relations in the Ministry, Of luwakemi Ogunmakinwa (Mrs.) revealed this in a statement signed on Monday.
Sen. Lokpobiri the commitment when the UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, H.E Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi, paid him a courtesy visit in his office on Monday.
The Minister said that Nigeria would improve on its existing relationship with the UAE. He added that he has been interfacing with his counterpart in the UAE in that regard.
He added that: “Nigeria as a country is committed to the Paris agreement but we are also saying that no country is slowing down on fossil fuel production particularly for Africa; we need to create more investment opportunities for investments to come in so that we can create the requisite funding for us to be able to finance our transition”
He also noted that, every country in the world including the UAE that is among the leading countries in terms of flow of investments achieved their successes from investment flow.
“For us in Africa, in Nigeria particularly, what we are looking for is to build strategic partnership with the UAE and the rest of the world so that we would be able to raise the money that is needed to finance energy transition as canvassed globally”
Sen. Lokpobiri called on investors in the UAE to come and invest in Nigeria, noting that: “The quickest way for any investor to get returns from investment is through the oil and gas sector”.
“Nigeria has enormous investment opportunities. Our pipelines need renewal. The pipelines have been there for over 50 years. Nigeria found oil in commercial quantity in 1956/58. From then till now, it’s almost 70 years and most of those pipelines were built around that time, so they have already outlived their lifespan”
“Even if you have the capacity to produce, you need to evacuate to the terminals where you could do export. So, it’s an opportunity we are actually looking up to for potential investors from the UAE to come and invest and recover their money through those investments”
The Minister said that Nigeria should be doing more than the crude deposits volumes of 37 billion barrel, saying that: “At the inception of the current administration, part of what was said was the need to resume our drilling campaigns to ensure that we make more discoveries and sustain that momentum.
“We are achieving that by liberalizing the processes. We are trying to limit the bureaucracy that has been one of the reasons why some of these investments were delayed; we are trying to make things easier for those who want to invest to come in.
“We want to assure the UAE that Nigeria is open for investments and we are committed to deepening our very strategic relationship”.
He expressed his readiness to work very closely with the Ambassador so that potential investors from the UAE can come and invest in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
The UAE Ambassador to Nigeria, H.E Salem Saeed Al-Shamsi thanked the Minister for his warm reception and he expressed excitement about the improvement in the economy of Nigeria.
He further said that, going forward, the technical teams from the Ministry and the UAE Embassy would need to interface and explore areas of collaboration and partnership between the two countries.
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