Foremost gender equity advocacy group in Nigeria, the Women in Energy Network (WIEN), has expressed delight at the Oil and Gas Companies Order 2024 just released by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The Executive Order relates to tax incentives exemption, remission and other incentives for development, production, processing and consumption of non-associated gas (NAG) in the country.
President of the group, Mrs. Eyono Fatayi-Williams, declared in a public statement that the new presidential executive order comes with the long required incentives for unlocking oilfield development investments in the nation’s petroleum sector.
The order which also provides fiscal and commercial incentives for investments in midstream petroleum industry would be the first set of spurs on commercial players in the industry in the past 20 years. And with the incentives hosted in the executive order, it is expected that some of the Nigeria’s discovered gas fields would now begin to see development and production investments.
“The incentives provided by Mr. President will trigger a full chain activity in the petroleum industry, commercialize the nation’s huge natural gas resources and guarantee supply sufficiency for commercial, industrial and domestic application of fuel gas in the economy,” Mrs. Fatayi-Williams declared.
She pointed out that the incentives which include 10-year tax credits and allowances have made the executive order one of the strongest propellers of gas driven industrial catalysts in the economy.
She added that unlocking the development of non-associated gas (NAG) in Nigeria would assist players in the midstream and downstream petroleum industry drive home some of the nation’s economic aspirations for the gas industry, including the autogas policy, LPG penetration programme, national gas expansion programme and gas-to-power programme.
According to WIEN, the Executive Order would not only enable much-needed investments in the upstream petroleum industry but also enhance ease of doing business by providing fiscally congenial space for inflow of investment capital into the nation’s oil and gas sector.
With the investment incentives now thrown at the industry, WIEN called on all its members to seize the advantage of the tax credits and allowances to launch into the field with full female energy to support realization of the goals of the unfolding reforms in the energy industry.
Mrs. Fatayi-Williams pointed out that the incentives would spur full value chain activity in the industry where most members of WIEN have already taken active positions. She noted that apart from being the most reliable industrial fuel and the cleanest available domestic fuel, natural gas holds enormous potentials to restore complete commerciality in the electricity supply industry.
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