Seplat Petroleum has demonstrated a sense of determination in pursuit of its mission to raise the level of indigenous participation in the oil and gas sector. This is a worthwhile mission that the nation is eagerly looking forward to its realisation. While Nigeria is one of the largest oil producers in the world, the core business of oil exploration is in the hands of multinational companies. Seplat Petroleum has however taken a bold step that could lead the way to increased participation of local operators in the upstream business.
Investors from within and outside the country have reposed confidence on the ability of the company to break new grounds in oil exploration by giving to it the new money it sought recently through its capital raising programme. It therefore behooves the company to capitalize fully on the resulting enhanced operating capacity to advance the course of increasing indigenous involement in oil and gas exploration.
The company has now been placed in a strong position to perform and therefore all eyes are on it to see whether it is capable of facing the challenges that have for several decades repelled indigenous companies from the upstream business. It is quite important that the company shapes up to global standards of operations and ensure it delivers according to its promises to all stakeholders.
The involvement of indigenous companies in crude oil exploration provides an important opportunity to give priority to meeting the critical needs of the local economy in respect of building adequate refining capacity as well as environmental issues. We are looking forward to a situation where indigenous oil exploration companies will set new standards in these areas that will become the benchmarks for foreign companies to comply with.
While the multinationals have the capacity to build refineries here, they do not have any sense of responsibility to do so. They can also afford to ignore important environmental and community issues. For an indigenous company, such as Seplat Petroleum, we expect that the value system will change to address the needs of the nation rather than follow the bad examples of foreign oil companies in respect of critical issues affecting us in Nigeria.
Seplat Petroleum is now well positioned to add a product refining operation to its oil exploration activity and we encourage them to take the positive step. This will break the cycle of crude production, exportation and re-importation of refined products. It will improve local value added, create new job opportunities and contribute towards stable product supplies in the country. It will conserve foreign exchange for the nation and perhaps reduce the pump prices of petroleum products.
We also expect the company to adopt global best practices on corporate governance matters to ensure that it retains and further improves its credibility within the investment community. This will place it in a position to raise new money any time from within and outside the country for adequate financing of the capital intensive business in which it is engaged.
