Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum, said some of the world’s biggest independent oil traders such as Vitol, Trafigura and Mercuria had benefited for years from exporting Nigeria’s crude and selling the country back refined petroleum products, without putting money into developing the sector.
He said they must stop treating the country like a “trading colony” and demanded they invest in its energy sector if they want to retain access to its resources, FT reports.
Some trading houses have already invested in infrastructure in Nigeria. Vitol has built an import terminal for liquefied petroleum gas and invested in Oando, the country’s largest independent oil conglomerate. Industry sources indicated that a refinery tender this year for rehabilitating the country’s processing plants, which had interest from foreign companies, was suspended because of the political sensitivity around the prospect of even a part-privatisation of state-owned assets.
Others have also complained about the difficulty of doing business in the country.“You cannot coerce a company to invest … There needs to be a well thought out policy in place to attract such investment,” said one Nigerian oil industry veteran. Foreign and domestic industry executives are also less sanguine. They say the investment climate under the Buhari administration has so far been characterised by policy uncertainties and a sense of hostility towards the private sector.
Some trading houses have already invested in infrastructure in Nigeria. Vitol has built an import terminal for liquefied petroleum gas and invested in Oando, the country’s largest independent oil conglomerate. Industry sources indicated that a refinery tender this year for rehabilitating the country’s processing plants, which had interest from foreign companies, was suspended because of the political sensitivity around the prospect of even a part-privatisation of state-owned assets.
Others have also complained about the difficulty of doing business in the country.“You cannot coerce a company to invest … There needs to be a well thought out policy in place to attract such investment,” said one Nigerian oil industry veteran. Foreign and domestic industry executives are also less sanguine. They say the investment climate under the Buhari administration has so far been characterised by policy uncertainties and a sense of hostility towards the private sector.
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