Nigeria attracted $800bn foreign capital into oil sector in 2024 – Ojulari

Nigeria attracted over $800 billion capita from global banks into the oil sector in 2024. Bayo Ojulari, the Chief Executive of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), disclosed this at the 50th anniversary of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists in Lagos. He said that although Nigeria has abundant oil resources under the ground, but lack of funding had been the bane of oil expiation in the country. Ojulari, however, said the oil resources were valueless, without being extracted. “Our oil in the ground doesn’t matter to anybody. It has to convert to cash for the country to get the benefit that we need. We’ve had oil in the ground for so long, so long. It’s time to begin to get the deals that will get the oil out of the ground,” he said.
The NNPCL boss, who was represented by the NNPCL Executive Vice-President (Upstream), Udobong Ntia, however, expressed optimism that the funding challenge could be surmounted through the creation of an enabling environment that could attract capital into the sector. He said the needed capital could be attracted into the sector through in clear returns for investors since investors want assurances that their investments would make returns. He expressed satisfaction that investments were already returning to the oil sector from global banks, adding that Nigeria recorded  such investments worth over $800 billon last year Johnbosco Uche, the President of NAPE, had also raised concerns over the country’s vast, but untapped gas resources estimated at over 600 trillion cubic feet.
“Nigeria sits on a wealth of untapped potential, especially in natural gas, now universally recognised as a key transition fuel. Gas exploration must become intentional, and this is the era to look deeper and smarter. We have unappraised, partially appraised, and near-field exploration oil growth opportunities that need to be evaluated, developed, and produced in a sustainable manner. I call on the government to work closely with us, providing the fiscal and regulatory incentives that will enable industry players to explore, discover, and produce this oil and gas efficiently. We must also return to the basics of exploration: quality data (through seismic acquisition), bold ideas, and collaborative innovation. We must go back to the unappraised discoveries, unlock stranded value, and increase our reserve replacement ratio. We would then need to adopt digital transformation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence and apply them to our rich database for impactful results. All these will drive our ambition of meeting the national 2030 production targets,” he said.