Federal government has called on oil and gas operators to create ingenious ways of raising capital to expand their investment and tackle myriads of problems facing the sector, especially leveraging the nation’s capital market.
Minister of state for petroleum resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, stated this at the Seplat Energy anniversary to commemorate its 10-year of Dual Listing on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) and London Stock Exchange held yesterday in Lagos.
Lokpobiri assured that government would continue to create enabling environment and regulatory framework for companies to operate in a more conducive manner as prescribed by the PIA.
According to him, there is need for companies under the sector to adopt robust corporate governance structures that would attract financiers and sustain their confidence to invest in these firms as achieved by Seplat Energy.
“We need to solve our problems ourselves; this is the time for us to evolve home grown solutions to solve our energy problems. So, we have to evolve some ingenious ways of raising money, through the capital market. We are committed in sustaining our production in oil and gas but in a more responsible and cleaner way by deploying the best technology.”
He added that there is need for the country to boost its production capacity currently, considering the attractiveness of pricing at the moment.
Reviewing Seplat Energy’s performance over the last 10 years, chief executive officer of Seplat Energy, Roger Brown said the energy giant generated $1.7 billion in Free Cash Flow (FCF) and invested over $57 million to support community projects, especially in the areas of health care, education and empowerment.
He pointed out that the firm has returned dividend worth $575 million and invested $1.6 billion in capital expenditure in the last 10 years, saying that “our strong cash generation has supported our ambition to expand our business, which has seen us spend an aggregate of $1.6 billion in capex.”
He noted that the company has delivered significant value enhancing strategies in both operations and financials within 10 years of listing on the bourse, saying that the firm has increased its gas revenue by 350 per cent to $123.4 million from 2014 to 2023.
