President Tinubu Is Committed To Accelerating Strategic Shift Of IOCs From Onshore Operations To Deep Offshore And Gas Businesses—Olu Verheijen

<h4>President Tinubu Is Committed To Accelerating Strategic Shift<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that the Special Adviser to the President on Energy&comma; Olu Verheijen&comma; has expressed confidence in the ability and commitment of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission &lpar;NUPRC&rpar; to resolve outstanding issues surrounding Shell’s proposed sale of its onshore assets to the Renaissance consortium&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Verheijen noted that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration is dedicated to accelerating the strategic shift of international oil companies &lpar;IOCs&rpar; from onshore operations to a focus on deep offshore and gas businesses&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At the recent launch of the &OpenCurlyQuote;<strong>1mmbopd’<&sol;strong> project to mark NUPRC’s third anniversary&comma; Commission Chief Executive Engr&period; Gbenga Komolafe disclosed the government’s approval of four divestment deals&comma; including the ExxonMobil sale of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited to Seplat Energy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;27247" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-27247" style&equals;"width&colon; 280px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-medium wp-image-27247" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2024&sol;11&sol;IMG-20241101-WA0027-280x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"President Tinubu Is Committed To Accelerating Strategic Shift Of IOCs From Onshore Operations To Deep Offshore And Gas Businesses---Olu Verheijen" width&equals;"280" height&equals;"300" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-27247" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Olu Verheijen&comma;Special Adviser to the President on Energy<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>In a virtual interview with journalists and analysts from 54 African nations&comma; under the auspices of the African Association of Energy Journalists and Publishers &lpar;AJERAP&rpar;&comma; Verheijen stated&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>Many divestment deals have been closed&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>There has been an accelerated rate of approvals for some of these deals&period; There is an improvement from what it used to be in the past&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>If<&sol;strong> <strong>you look at the level of approvals that have occurred and the speed at which they transpired&comma; you will see that there is an improvement&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She added&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>There is one outstanding issue&comma; and we remain confident in NUPRC’s regulatory process&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>Our objective is to accelerate exits for IOCs who wish to refocus on other areas&comma; particularly the deep offshore and gas businesses&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to Verheijen&comma; IOCs possess significant capital and technical expertise that can help unlock value in the complex deep offshore and gas sectors&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For onshore players&comma; she emphasized the need for independents to align with the goal of rapidly increasing production&comma; ensuring they have the technical and financial capacity to do so&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She highlighted that President Tinubu has made substantial efforts to attract and retain investors in the energy sector through sound policies and appealing incentives&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Verheijen remarked&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>When we took office&comma; we noted a decline in investment&comma; partly due to security challenges&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>The low investment was also influenced by fiscal incentives&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>We needed to reassess these aspects&comma; including the revenue or profit share between the government and investors&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She explained&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;<em><strong>We aimed to rebalance and become more competitive compared to other investment destinations&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em><strong>We considered all operators&comma; including international businesses&comma; still interested in investing in Nigeria and advocated for ways to enhance our competitiveness&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;