Honourable Ibe Okwara Osonwa is the House of Representatives Member representing Ohafia Arochukwu State Constituency who has been at the forefront of the campaign for legislations that will spur growth in the country’s oil and gas industry.
In this exclusive interview with THE WHISTLER, Okwara Osonwa gave insight into the role of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) in marketing Nigeria’s 12 new oil blocks and the 7 old blocks to foreign investors at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Texas, USA and Miami, Florida.
The lawmaker also spoke on how members of the House of Representatives are using their legislative powers to make the oil and gas industry conducive for investors.
Excerpts…
As A Lawmaker, What Were Your Expectations For The Nigerian Oil And Gas Industry While At The Offshore Technology Conference?
The OTC is supposed to be a networking event between the exploration companies and the service providers and an event like this bridges that gap. Now, for us lawmakers, our real purpose at the 2024 OTC is to make sure that we observe and dialogue with investors in case rules, laws, or acts need to be put in place to bring seamless business into Nigeria, helping our operators and also helping the service providers. We equally want to attract foreign direct investment into Nigeria. It’s very apparent that we have issues.
We cannot produce enough crude oil for ourselves within the oil sector and even refine crude oil, so events like the OTC open up opportunities for Nigeria to stop relying on external oil and petroleum products like the PMS etc, and we start dealing with it internally.
We are seeing some investor apathy due to the drive for net zero emissions. So, this is just a shop. We are like an advertisement agency, an opportunity marketer, or lawmakers to make sure that we instill confidence in investors so that there is a swift and smooth market for the oil and gas sector.
How Do You Think Investors Are Responding To The 19 Oil Blocks In Which The NUPRC Launched Its Licensing Round?
Nigeria is open for business. That’s one of the essence of the licensing round. We have the best oil blocks in Africa. We are open for business. And look, we need as much money as we can. There’s a lot of development that needs to come.
And this fossil fuel only has a period as the push for net zero emission intensifies. Here in Houston, you will see the increased growth of electric vehicles and a lot of solar farms. The world is moving. We will get there. I am very sure about it. But what we need to do right now is to make sure that we collect as much money as we can, so we can use the funds to sponsor our energy transition plan which is the future.
What Are Lawmakers In The House Of Representatives Doing To Use Legislative Powers To Open Up Nigeria’s Oil And Gas Industry To Both Foreign And Local Investors?
So one of the biggest things we were able to do was to pass the (Petroleum Industry Act 2021) PIA in Nigeria. So, that law is the bedrock and the stepping stone for everything. Again, all we are looking to do is to open up Nigeria like a massive signpost, ‘Nigeria is open for business.’ And with bills like that and other supporting bills. There’s a bill in the house right now to make sure that the Shippers Council is more liberalized and more open to benefit from the full potential of the shipping sector.
So, all these things inter-twined. We use ships to transport the crude oil. So this is all working towards the building block of perfecting our business in the oil and gas industry.
INTERVIEW: Nigeria’s Oil Blocks Are The Most Attractive In Africa – Reps. Member Okwara-Osonwa is first published on The Whistler Newspaper