How Nigeria can increase revenue to fund its budgets – PETAN

The Chairman of PETAN, Wole Ogunsanya, said this in a statement to Channels Television over the weekend.

According to him, the country is currently experiencing revenue draught because it is not producing enough oil to match the escalating foreign exchange rate.

“The country is not producing enough oil to match what people need, and PETAN would be happy to assist in this regard,” he said, assuring to support the efforts of the Bola Tinubu-led administration toward increasing Nigeria’s oil and gas production for maximum value.

He stated that if Nigeria could retain between 60 to 70 per cent of the oil and gas value chain in the country, the nation stood a better chance of emerging as top 20 economies in the world.

According to him, the country is underproducing to the tune of at least 500,000 barrels per day which he said was a huge loss to the country.

The PETAN chief said such losses would not have been if there was full in-country retention of values, and beneficiation across all the chains of the industry.

“Essentially, if Nigerian organisations are involved in taking that oil out, taking it to a refinery owned by Nigerians and refining it. If we have petrochemicals refining the gas and the product, we are taking that gas, we are processing it in power plants, we run pipelines to connect all those power plants, this country will be top 20 economies in the world,” he said.

“And we believe very strongly that there is no better prescription of Nigeria’s economic solution than that.”

Nigeria currently produces about 1.3 million barrels of crude oil per day, according to statistics obtained from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

A loss of 500, 000 barrels per day production pegs monthly loss to about 15.5 million barrels.

While checks showed International Brent sells at $91 per barrel, the Central Bank’s exchange rate as of Monday was N1,250/$1.

Channels Television’s estimation puts the country’s total monthly revenue loss due to crude oil underproduction to about $1.4bn (N1.8trn).

“Essentially, if Nigerian organisations are involved in taking that oil out, taking it to a refinery owned by Nigerians and refining it. If we have petrochemicals refining the gas and the product, we are taking that gas, we are processing it in power plants, we run pipelines to connect all those power plants, this country will be top 20 economies in the world,” he said.

“And we believe very strongly that there is no better prescription of Nigeria’s economic solution than that.”

Nigeria currently produces about 1.3 million barrels of crude oil per day, according to statistics obtained from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

A loss of 500, 000 barrels per day production pegs monthly loss to about 15.5 million barrels.

While checks showed International Brent sells at $91 per barrel, the Central Bank’s exchange rate as of Monday was N1,250/$1.

Channels Television’s estimation puts the country’s total monthly revenue loss due to crude oil underproduction to about $1.4bn (N1.8trn).

To retain value in-country at every stage of the oil and gas process, Wole said a lot of gaps needed to be filled through government policy initiatives and collaboration with industry stakeholders.

Reiterating PETAN’s commitment to support the retention of those values, he acknowledged the presidency’s high interest in increasing production.

He pointed out that the presidency had given the directives and had formulated a lot of gazettes, stating that PETAN aligns with those initiatives.

Wole further said, “We intend to support this government, to support this country to increase production of oil and gas. I presented this vision to the whole house of PETAN exactly a week ago and the vision is very clear. PETAN wants to support Nigeria through innovative means to increase the production of oil and gas in this country.

“That is the mandate that the president has given. PETAN is going to come up with very innovative ideas on how this is going to be achieved and even a low-cost approach that is being used in other countries. If you go to Indonesia where some of us have relationships, this is what they are doing. They are looking inward on how to maximize returns from the resources that they have.”

Owing to the technical know-how of the members and the unique position of the association, the PETAN boss said they are working with the government to create value for the country.

He said the group’s commitment and response to the president’s mandate of increasing production was for them to be prepared to deploy all their assets at various locations in the Niger Delta to actualise that mandate.

He acknowledged the challenges facing the industry in Nigeria including funding, logistics, and others. He stressed the imperative of collaboration and partnership between PETAN and other critical stakeholders.

Source: CHANNELS TV