The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc, Mr. Austin Avuru has said that the current challenges facing Nigeria’s oil and gas sector were caused by lack of transparency and due process on the part of the government in the past eight years.
In his keynote address at the 10th Annual Oil Industry Awards Dinner of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) held in Lagos, Avuru stated that deal making in the oil and gas industry has replaced due process and transparency. He noted that as a result, formulation of policies and regulation by the government had become stunted over the years.
Avuru alleged that in the past eight years, almost every transaction approved by the government in the oil and gas was because somebody had struck a good deal and not that due process was followed. He said the development had led to declining production that was fueled by huge funding gap that crippled joint venture production.