Heineken Lokpobiri, the minister of Petroleum Resources (oil), following the recent acquisition of the Nigerian Agip Oil Company (NOAC), has charged the management of Oando Energy Resources Nigeria Ltd to pursue increased crude production, targeting 100,000 barrels per day.
In the meeting in Abuja on Thursday, the minister commended the company for completing the acquisition process, adding that the Nigerian government was committed to creating Nigerian international companies that would compete worldwide.
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He said, “I have always been asked at international forums whether the indigenous companies can sustain the running of these companies. And I told them that our companies can run them, professionally and profitably, in such a manner that the Federal Government will lose nothing.
“My expectation is that Oando will ramp up production in these assets. If you are able to ramp up production it will help to meet the two million barrels production by the end of the year. There are enormous opportunities in the industry and we boldly tell the world that Nigeria is ready for business.”
Lokpobiri speaking further, tasked the company to look out for welfare of its host communities.
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In his remarks, Ainojie Alex Irune, the Managing Director of Oando said, “IOC is not a concept reserved only for companies from the West, the Far East, and the likes. We can breed and create our IOCs that would have sizable balance sheets, acreages across the world, and portfolios that can compete with the likes of the Aramco’s of this world, the Shell’s, Chevron, and so on. But we must start from somewhere.
“Oando has started this journey. I believe the history of the company is there to show and to prove with capacity to continue to do great things. And what we want to share with everyone today is the fact that we see a bright future, a bright future that speaks to a significant amount of improvement in the way these assets are run, a local approach to the local problems of host community and security, and a production uptake that will contribute to the overall production ambitions of the country in excess of what we have seen prior to now.”
