The Independent Petroleum Producers Group (IPPG) has made case for speedy approval of pending International Oil Companies (IOCs) pending divestment transactions with indigenous operators.

The association, which is the umbrella body of  indigenous oil and gas producers, said that its member companies   – Seplat, the Renaissance Consortium and Oando – have the proven track record to successfully take over and manage the pending divested onshore and shallow water assets.

According to IPPG, approving the divestments would help the country  to realise incremental production in the region of 100,000 – 200,000 barrels of oil and over 1.5bcf of gas per day within 24 months and well over 500,000 barrels of oil per day in the long term.

The Chairman of  IPPG, Abdulrazaq Isa, said this  on Tuesday at the ongoing 23rd NOG Energy Week, holding in Abuja with the theme, “Showcasing opportunities, driving investment and meeting energy demand.”

Isa asserted that timely approval of these IOC divestment transactions will be a clear signal capable of restoring global investor confidence in Nigeria in an era of competing global investment destinations in Africa and very limited access to capital.

He regretted that despite the country’s huge  hydrocarbon reserves, its  daily production has significantly dropped to about 1.3 million barrels of crude oil per day and 8.5  billion standard cubic feet of gas per day respectively.

Isa, who is also the Chairman of Waltersmith noted that untangling issues around deepwater development, particularly in terms of competitive fiscal regime, will unlock incremental production of 700,000 barrels per day.

“Untangling issues around deepwater development, particularly in terms of competitive fiscal regime being negotiated with Shell, Total Energies, ExxonMobil and Chevron, has the potential to unlock incremental production of 700,000 barrels per day from this terrain in the short to medium term. Enabling deepwater development will attract significant economic benefits as Nigeria has one of the world’s largest untapped deepwater resource base,” he said.

With the country’s growing refining capacity, Isa highlighted the imperative to grow the nation’s daily production to 2.5 million barrels of oil and 10 bcf of gas in the near to long term to ensure.

“Nigeria’s domestic crude oil refining and petrochemical capacity must be sustained primarily from our domestic crude oil and gas production in order to transform our country into a net exporter of refined petroleum and petrochemical products that will lay a strong foundation for the rapid industrialization of the Nigerian economy. It is therefore imperative to grow our daily production to 2.5 million barrels of oil and 10 bcf of gas in the near to long term to ensure we are able to meet our domestic refinery and petrochemical demands and export commitments to generate the much needed foreign exchange earnings for macro-economic stability,” he said.

On using gas  to catalyse economic growth and complement decarbonisation drive, the IPPG chairman said: “Nigeria’s vast gas resources must be exploited with immediate focus placed on restoring production to existing installed LNG capacity and expanding production (FLNG). In addition, we must expand domestic gas utilization (Gas-to-Power; Gas-Based Industries) by investing heavily to address the gas infrastructure deficit facing us today. The International Oil Companies will lead the charge on export gas while IPPG members will drive the domestic gas agenda led by NNPCL.”

“These priority areas provide the most realistic and sustainable pathway towards meeting our national long term production aspiration of 4 million barrels of oil per day and 13 billion cubic feet of gas per day,” he added.