Dominance of Multinationals to End

Nigeria's industry regulator, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), has prepared its subsidiary, the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company (NPDC) for oil exploration and exploitation.

Plans are to push NPDC into the elite league of joint venture operators, a body of foreign firms. To put the NPDC on proper footing, the NNPC has struck a deal with foreign operators to cede five oil fields to the local firm. These fields are currently under the leasehold of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC), ChevronTexaco Nigeria and Mobil Producing Unlimited.

Although the names of the fields and their potential were not disclosed, a statement endorsed by the NNPC and the operators on the deal, said that the wells have substantial potential, which require huge investment in financial and human resources as well as the deployment of cutting edge technology.

The statement explained that both the NNPC and its partners agreed that the issue of capacity building for NPDC, which include the transfer of operatorship of the fields to the company, should be pursued with vigour.