At the recent centinarry celebrations of the Howard University Department of Engineering, Architecture and Computer Sciences, in Washington DC, USA Nigeria’s Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, who was honoured with a distinguished award on Government and Public Management, had the opportunity of telling the international community of ongoing reforms in the Nigerian economy, and in particular, instituting more transparency in the country’s oil nd gas sector. Excerpts as captured by Clara Nwachukwu

How do you feel about the perception of the Nigerian oil industry when we talk about stability as it relates to volatility in the industry and its obviously spoiling the market, how do you feel about that perception?

I think in over the years, what we have seen in the Nigerian oil and gas sector has become fairly stable. Militancy in the Niger-Delta has since been subsided through the amnesty programme incentives and it worked quite well. So from that point of view, there has been stability in the country and this will remain till over the next four years. Of course, since the inception of the sector, there has been volatility around the world in recent times and we expect this to continue to some extent.

What are your policies or what have you seen as your best practices in some areas on how to increase securities, to lessen corruption, and to increase transparency?

To answer that question, there is a wider issue to corruption and transparency as it affects the oil and gas sector. But I think on both counts, both in terms of the wider issue and the oil and gas sector, there is a need to continue with ongoing reforms and programmes to ensure transparency and to ensure a wider participation in the oil and gas sector that I speak for.

I think in many developed economies, there is always an underlined corruption, but the broader we increase transparency in the oil sector, and deep down to ensure that we begin to enshrine many of the reforms that are actually taking place even as we speak.

The oil and gas sector for instance, and with the Petroleum Industry Bill, which is going through its final review, major reforms are coming into the oil and gas sector which have been accused of not being transparent enough and having an underlined bell for corruption.

I think that over the years there have been, not just in the oil and gas sector, but in many other sectors there are also many reform initiatives that are digging dip and beginning to take root, although it may appear that they are taking a little time for them to be enshrined, but I must say that we are already seeing some good results and we are hopeful that over the next three to four years, we would see much broader transparency within the sector at least in Nigeria. Having said that, there are issues that we are working through like any other developing economies.

Do you foresee Nigeria as a leader of the West African region, and as unifier in energy quality beyond oil to embrace other sources like uranium?

Well I think so, because I think Nigeria is already a stabiliser in the region in many forms. But yes, we will expect that in the next few years we would be able to increase in stabilising many other areas. Uranium which is a mineral source is not one of those minerals we have exploited to the full at this point in time. But we have over 37 major minerals in Nigeria including uranium, and we all know the volatility of that mineral is one we have been very careful about exploiting at this period in time.

Why Nigeria is importing refined oil from other countries which is one of the main impediments preventing Nigeria from achieving self sufficiency in refined petroleum?

Well, again this has been a very topical issue in recent times that being one of the world’s largest producers of crude, Nigeria would be expected to have self sufficiency in refined petroleum products. To do that you have to increase your refining capacity to a certain level. but at this point in time, Nigeria’s petroleum products are subsidised to the Nigeria public/market.

That has been a major discourse and cause of a major strike in the country when it tried to deregulate, to take away the subsidy and help the country direct this particular financial resources to other parts of the economy, which we felt were much more critical. Also, we didn’t feel that the subsidies were reaching the sector of the population that they were devised for in the first place, but they were in fact, enriching the middlemen in the petroleum industry instead.

As you will find in many developing countries or economies particularly in Africa, there is an official dependence on the government not just in Africa, but in developing countries as well. And so, over the years it becomes more and more difficult, I think, in  emerging economies to remove that dependency particularly where it concerns a major infrastructure and logistics as in this case.

But with the subsidised price at the end of the line, it makes your refining sector rather unappealing to major investors. As we all know, building of refineries are not a cheap venture at all, and anyone coming in with a major investment of that sort would need of course to be assured that it is commercially viable and would bring good returns on the investment at the end of the day.

And this was one of the reasons we tried to deregulate, to open up the sector to more investments. We have three traditional refineries which have not done very well in terms of management in government’s hands, and in fact, the government should not be in the business of refining in the first place.

It can be an equity participator but it should not be in the business of running refineries, and in fact many other entities which would be better in private hands. So this is the shift now to ensure that we create the requisite environment to bring in a lot more equity investment into the refineries and other parts of the oil and gas sector and other parts of economy.

Even beyond the issue of refining petroleum products in Nigeria, we are also trying to ensure equity participation even in areas such as the gas pipelines to ensure that over time, this sort of area, gas pipeline, tank farms, depots etc are put in the hands of the private sector domain as much as possible. And I think that as that happens, as it certainly will, we would see that it will begin to address some issues of transparency and underlined corruption as well.

How would you describe the issue of environment and accountability by corporate institutions?

In the Nigerian oil and gas industry, issues of the environment are being taken into serious consideration, as I don’t think we have any choice anymore because we are been very careful and closely to the standards of the world over at this point in time.

I agree the multinationals did not adher strictly to global standards, but that was a long time aago. And on the flip side, government did not also ensure that its standards are obeyed to the letter.

Having said that, we are putting in place stronger policies and we re implementing them mor ethan ever before because issues of the environment are considered extremely important.

You spoke pasiontely and confidently about Nigeria’s leadership role in the petroleum industry, what are the things on ground that are fueliing such passion and conviction?

As you know, we have worked over the few months in the oil and gas sector strategically and to ensure that various frameworks are put in place, and we have gone the whole gamut from the gas reforms pulling them out of the Gas Master Plan, to revisiting the Petroleum Industry Bill.

In our gas industrialisation programmes, we have even as you probably know in the past few days, implemented a 12-month gas emergency roll out and recently in council, I ratified a memorandum for the Engineering Procurement and Construction, EPC contract for the OB3 pipeline, which is the most critical gas links in the oil and gas sector.

Also, so we have put in place so many plicies in other areas both in the upstream and also to address issues in the downstream sector, particularly with the local content act and all the other related areas to ensure that we create jobs and employment generation going forward.

I think this is where it is critical that the Nigeria downstream sector capitalises on the ability to transform and be dynamic in terms of job creation and employment generation for our people, ensuring that the oil and gas industry is not just a very capital intensive, highly technological driven area, which it is in the upstream which hires a very few people, but instilling into the sector that is creative enough to fuel a dynamic economic growth and capability across the country.

I think that there are so many areas that we have strategically addressed in the oil and gas sector that allow me to be as passionate and as convinced as I am about what is, moving forward. And that is what I see when I stand here, am extremely excited over what has happened so far and even more excited in what I expect to see in the months to come.

What is your view of leadership as it relates to women, what is being done in your capacity as the Minister to empower up and coming young women in Nigeria?

I will say always that no matter the sector you find yourself in as a woman, no matter how male dominated it may be, put your head down and remain focused. emerse yourself in everything that you think will take you to the top and more.

I don’t believe that there are any class feelings that cannot be broken through at this point in time. And if we think about it, women have actually been breaking grounds for generations and generations, and perhaps we need to take from our history as women as we look to our future.

The women figures in our lives both in Africa and in America are actually very strong if you look back along the way. I do recall from all the researches and stories we were told by my mother, and I have a mother who is over 100 and she is still very clear in her mind, that in the old days, it was the women who paddled the canoes because we are from the Niger Delta which is the water areas cross the river to their farms.