Elumelu, Dangote seek more local participation in oil, gas industry.

original post by http://dailyindependentnig.com/

Business moguls, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, President Dangote Group and Tony O. Elumelu, Chairman, Heirs Holdings, have lent their support to calls for more indigenous participation in the nation’s oil and gas industry.

Alhaji Aliko Dangote

Speaking as guests at the 32nd Annual International Conference of the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), in Lagos, they said such would augur well for the economy, calling for a deliberate and systematic approach to the auctualisation of the goal.

According to Elumelu in his opening remarks, “I was encouraged to come into the oil and gas industry by someone who believes deeply in Nigerian local capacity”

Indigenous participation, he added, will impact positively on the sector just like it happened with banking, where “Many years ago it was the general belief that only expatriates could own and run banks in Nigeria. Today, however, the top five banks are owned and run indigenously and we need for the same to happen in the oil and gas sector.”

Elumelu, whose pan-African investment company has interest in the financial services, oil and gas, healthcare power and hospitality sectors, revealed that he has ambitious plans in the oil and gas industry, looks forward to the day when Nigeria will have the capacity to refine its petroleum on its own shores.  According to him, Tenoil Petroleum and Energy Services was set up as a platform to manage and operate Heirs Holdings’ investments across the energy value chain, as well as the extractive minerals sector.

“Gas remains a hindrance to our economic development yet we have it in abundance. Efficient utilization of our gas resources is important if we want to create employment, fix the economy, send our children to school and generally make things work,” Mr. Elumelu said.

Dangote, on his part, emphasized the importance of policy and regulation in the quest to indigenize the sector. Dangote also harped on capacity building and explained that the petro-chemical plant in the Lekki  free trade zone in Lagos, which when  completed  by 2017 will employ thousands of Nigerians and turn the country into a net exporter of petroleum products.

He recalled that when he started Dangote Cement in 2007, the industry had little local capacity, a situation that has since changed with indigenous players now having the dominant market share in the Nigerian cement industry.