African oil economies with better fiscal terms attracting investors more—Lekoil GMD
Chief Executive Officer of Lekoil Group, Mr. Lekan Akinyanmi, has called for flexible and seamless fiscal terms in oil deals to retain existing investors and attract more to Nigeria.
Lekoil is an AIM-listed oil and gas exploration and Production Company with interests in Nigeria and Namibia.
Speaking in Lagos recently, he said delays in delivering a purpose made Petroleum industry law is robbing the economy serious oil and gas deals due to the apparent lack of standard operating procedure which only a passed and assented Petroleum Industry Law can drive.
He said “In competition for capital, to the extent that some of these African countries have better fiscal terms, they may actually be able to attract better capital than we do in Nigeria. Our fiscal terms are not that attract.
Continuing, Akinyanmi made it clear that “In the grand scheme of the world, you will understand that we are a well-known petroleum basin, the resource is big but you have to pay taxes, royalties etc. however, oil itself is a global industry and I know a lot of people are talking about renewables but I believe the demand for oil will be there.”
“In a previous life, part of my job was oil price forecast, I studied demand and supply, and one thing I remember clearly is that the per capita consumption then in America was about 25 barrels per person, per year.
According to him, “For many developed countries in the world, it was always between 14 and 15 barrels per person.”
“China then was about 2 barrels per person per year. To move China to the world average, you needed to find about 7 million barrels per day or another Saudi Arabia, which you wouldn’t. This means that we were always going to have energy shortage. So, this created a situation where you need the alternatives such as renewable and gas,” Akinyanmi said.
