ts oil minister said on Tuesday.
The move follows the renewal of Exxon Mobil’s license in February, which was worth trillions of dollars, Reuters has reported.
Nigeria’s oil minister, Diezani Alison-Madueke said in the capital Abuja that in order to show our commitment to a vibrant upstream sector the government ” have started the renewal of leases in good faith … renewals with Chevron and Shell are expected to be concluded by June at the latest”
Several onshore drilling licenses that expired as far back as 2008 have been in negotiations between foreign oil majors, Nigeria’s state-oil firm and government for years.
Exxon signed 20-year oil license renewals on Nigerian assets producing around 550,000 barrels per day in February.
The Nigerian government has been reluctant to sign new deals or renew old ones until the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB), which is likely to increase royalties, taxes and confirm more local participation in the industry, becomes law.
However, the bill has been stuck in the country’s National Assembly for years and has been subject to numerous delays and amendments leaving major regulatory uncertainties.
Shell, the biggest operator in Nigeria, has onshore assets that can produce 1 million barrels of crude oil per day. It also operates joint-venture projects with Nigeria’s state-oil firm NNPC, Italy’s Eni and France’s Total.
Although, the country is described as a mixed economy emerging market, Oil export remains the mainstay of the Nigerian economy.
Production drops
In a related development, Nigeria’s economy grew 6.17 per cent in the first quarter this year, down from 7.68 per cent in the fourth quarter last year, due partially to the removal of government fuel subsidies, the national bureau of statistics (NBS) said on Tuesday.
According to the NBS report, the 2nd largest economy in Africa recorded a drop in oil production from 2.4 million bpd in the fourth quarter 2011, to an average of 2.35 million barrels per day (bpd) in the first quarter of this year.
REUTERS
