Oil giant, Total Nigeria has today blown alarm that the proposed Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) would make Nigeria unattractive to oil investors. The French oil company made this known through its memoranda it submitted to the House Ad hoc committee on PIB, during a public hearing, saying the proposed PIB would put the Nigerian oil sector on a crossroad such that it would no longer be competitive to international investors. According to the document submitted by Total, they opined that instead, the bill would eventually penalize those who would risk their resources for investment in the Nigerian oil sector.
Recall, that the oil giant Total in collaboration with other investors is currently running an Egina project.
According to the company, the recent proposal by the House committee mandating investors on deep offshore for a 10% tax and the corresponding finance act by the National Assembly would make investors have a rethink.
The statement partly reads, “The investments made by Total and OML 130 partners will be excessively penalized by the new PIB as drafted today, particularly the recent Egina project which has been in production for around 2years. The proposed changes in the fiscal framework undermine our investment in Nigeria and are unfair and contrary to the spirit of the ‘contract’ between the FGN and the Egina investor group. Moreover, the bill will endanger the viability of further developments on the block.”
“The deep offshore fiscal terms combined with the harsh PSC2005 have failed to deliver any major new developments. Following the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Amendment act, and the Finance Act passed in 2019 and 2020, Nigerian terms are even less competitive than other investment destinations in Africa where terms have recently been improved.”
