MOSCOW (MRC) -- The Nigerian government needs to end the air of uncertainty around the country's oil sector to attract much-needed investment that will bolster production, reported S&P Global with reference to ExxonMobil's statement.
The two critical Nigerian oil sector needs are certainty and business competitiveness, Paul McGrath, chairman and managing director of the ExxonMobil Nigeria producing unit, said during a meeting in Abuja with Nigeria's oil minister, Timipre Sylva, according to an oil ministry statement.
"There is nobody who doesn't want to invest in Nigeria," McGrath said.
The ExxonMobil executive, who also is chairman of the Oil Producers Trade Section, the umbrella body for oil companies operating in Nigeria, said he hoped the Nigerian oil minister would make these two critical factors priorities.
Oil companies have strongly opposed Nigeria's plans to increase taxes on its deepwater oil production after Nigeria amended the fiscal terms for existing production-sharing contracts.
That decision came as other producers in the region sweetened their fiscal terms to attract foreign investment to the beleaguered oil sector.
Angola recently improved fiscal terms for some oil contracts, giving international oil companies higher returns and opening up offshore and onshore basins.
Sylva said the amendment to the production-sharing law was "deemed necessary in recognition of the current realities in the sector."
Group managing director of state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Mele Kyari said earlier Tuesday in Lagos that Nigeria needs the help of international oil companies to raise exploration activities if it is to increase production to its target of 3 million b/d by 2023.
Kyari said Nigeria would still hold talks with oil companies on new fiscal terms for oil exploration after recent amendments to the law.
As MRC informed before, in September 2019, ExxonMobil announced plans to spend GBP140 million over the next two years in an additional investment program at its Fife ethylene plant (UK), which has a capacity of more than 800,000 t/y.
Ethylene and propylene are feedstocks for producing polyethylene (PE) and polyprolypele (PP).
According to MRC's ScanPlast report, Russia's estimated PE consumption totalled 1,589,580 tonnes in the first nine months of 2019, up by 7% year on year. Shipments of all PE grades increased. The estimated PP consumption in the Russian market was 976,790 tonnes in January-September 2019, up by 4% year on year. Shipments of PP block copolymer and homopolymer PP increased.
PBF Energy Inc. is a petroleum refiner and supplier of unbranded transportation fuels, heating oils, lubricants, petrochemical feedstocks, and other petroleum products. Headquartered in Parsippany, New Jersey, the company's refineries include facilities in Chalmette, Louisiana, Toledo, Ohio, Port of Paulsboro in Gibbstown, New Jersey, the Delaware City Refinery in Delaware City, and the former ExxonMobil refinery in Torrance, California. PBF produces a range of products including gasoline, ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD), heating oil, jet fuel, lubricants, petrochemicals and asphalt.
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