A stakeholder in the oil and gas industry and chairman of NestOil Limited, Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, has urged the Federal Government to ensure effective implementation of the local content laws that will protect indigenous companies in the oil and gas sector.
Azudialu-Obiejesi, who spoke with Tribune Online on the sidelines of the ongoing 2024 NOG Energy Week in Abuja, stated that although Nigeria has built much capacity in the oil and gas sector of the economy over the years, there is an urgent need to promote laws that will ensure the protection and development of indigenous companies.
According to Azudialu-Obiejesi, there is a need for developing countries like Nigeria to enact laws that are implementable, adding that failure to enforce such laws will leave local companies perpetually undeveloped while foreign investors repatriate investments to their countries.
“I want to tell you that if you want your local content or if you want your capacity to grow, you have to enact local content laws that are enforceable. Making law is one thing; another is to enforce it, administer it, and make sure that it works. If you do not do that, what you’re going to see is a typical example where investments come to a country, stay, and the country becomes a major producer for 50 years, and the whole money will just be drained out of that country. The locals will not be able to develop.
“Nigeria has built quite a lot of capacity within the country. And one of the areas where we can pride ourselves is in the area of oil and gas. And we know that some of these capacities we can’t export, but the ones in oil and gas we can export to other countries. And exporting them means we need laws to make sure that those companies that are in Nigeria are already developed,” the NestOil boss told the Tribune Online.
Azudialu-Obiejesi also frowned at the bidding process in the oil sector, where unqualified companies are considered above those who possess the technical expertise to handle the job. This, he argued, is affecting the growth of local companies during the bidding process.
“There are a lot of people who are briefcase contractors who don’t have capacity, but they will tell you they have connections, and because of that, they go and bid for jobs they cannot do. So these things have to be checked.
“So that when you are bidding for a job in the oil and gas industry, you compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. So people of the same technical capacity can bid for a job. And when they are given that job, they’ll be able to do the job timely and within budget.”
While adding that Nest Oil has grown from a service company in 1991 to an oil-producing company, Azudialu-Obiejesi said it has become one of the biggest pipeline companies in Nigeria, serving International Oil Companies (IOCs).
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