Capital importation into Nigerias oil and gas sector declined from over $300 million (N91 billion) recorded during the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2016 to $101.08 million (N31 billion) in the first quarter of 2017, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The NBS report, which was released on Wednesday, stated that compared to the previous quarter, the oil and gas sector recorded a decrease of 69.12 per cent in the country.
The agency noted that despite the decreases, the banking, and oil and gas sectors were the third and fourth largest capital importing sectors, accounting for $126 million and $101.08 million respectively.
Less investment in the oil and gas sector would result to low production and job losses. Indeed, hundreds of direct and indirect jobs have been lost to the sector on account of recession The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, recently said about $13 billion to $17 billion investment would be needed in the countrys upstream sector for the development of gas fields with total reserves 37.4 trillion cubic feet. He added that $14 billion to $17 billion will be needed for the Trans-Nigeria gas pipeline project, gas revolution industrial park at Ogidigben, and three power plants for additional 3.2 GW capacity in the gas-to-power sector.
A sectoral breakdown of the NBS report showed the banking sector has been a consistently important sector for imported capital, while the oil and gas sector has increased in importance in recent periods. NBS put the total value of capital imported into Nigeria in Q1 2017 at $908.27 million. Although this was an increase of 27.75 per cent relative to the same quarter of 2016, it was nevertheless 41.36 per cent smaller than the value of capital imported in the previous quarter, and was the second lowest value recorded since 2007.
Guardian (Online)
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