By Yemie Adeoye, reporting from Doha

The Federal Government, Tuesday, reeled out a sustainable action plan designed to promote rapid inflow of foreign investments into the Nigerian oil and gas industry as well as develop in-country capacity.

For this action to be implemented and sustained, the upstream sub-sector of the petroleum industry would require investments of $130 billion to drive effective growth.

Speaking at the ongoing 20th World Petroleum Congress, WPC, in Doha, Qatar, Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, said the country was primed to construct additional 2,000Km oil and gas pipelines across the country to meet the envisaged industry requirement in line with the Gas Revolution Agenda within the next five years.

Nigeria currently has over 5,000Km of crude, gas and petroleum products pipeline traversing the creeks and mangrove of the Niger Delta region and other parts of the country.

Mrs. Alison-Madueke also stated that as part of the administration’s commitment to ensure that Nigeria and Nigerians reap bountifully from proceeds of the hydrocarbon resources, the Federal Government was opening up the upstream sector to receive projected $130 billion investments within the next five years.

The minister said: “I can assure you that Nigeria is entering a new phase in the oil and gas industry which is anchored on the principle of using local content to achieve growth, develop in-country capacity as well as attract foreign investment.”

She said with the successful execution of the amnesty programme which has helped increase crude and condensate production to new levels of about 2.4 million bpd, aspiring foreign investors had no reason to be pessimistic about the safety of their investment.

She said: “Across the sectors, investment opportunities abound for willing multinationals and other partners as the Federal Government has worked out different investment partnership models to guarantee apt returns on investment to all concerned.”

Foreign investment

She listed some of the areas for foreign investment intervention to include; engineering design and related services, petroleum engineering services, fabrication and construction, pipe mills, equipment leasing, civil works, logistics and haulage, financial services, as well as in the areas of hospitality services for construction workers.

The minister added that though indigenous companies had shown strong capabilities since the advent of the Nigerian Content Act, more foreign investments were needed to help increase the quantity and quality of in-country capacity.

Alison-Madueke said: “As you can see, we have put in place all the machinery for an explosive growth across all strata of the petroleum industry from the downstream, midstream and to the upstream.

“There is an establi-shed enabling environ-ment for investment and we are continually evolving to adapt to the challenges of the time.”