Some stakeholders have called on the Federal Government to ensure reduction of taxes for indigenous companies in the oil and gas sector in order for them to grow.
The stakeholders spoke yesterday, at the ongoing 9th Practical Nigerian Content Forum with the theme, “Leveraging Local Expertise for Market Growth and Expansion”, in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
The Group Managing Director of Amni International Petroleum Development Company, Mr. Wale Olafisan, said numerous taxes in the industry adversely affects the development of indigenous companies.
Represented by a Director in the company, Mr. Tijani Adewale, Olafisan identified the taxes as Value Added Tax, Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board tax, NDDC tax, among others.
“We need to support the indigenous companies and encourage them to contribute to the growth and development of the country,” he said.
He called on government to ensure good governance in the sector to enable it compete globally. He said that world’s future was on gas and that it was necessary that Nigeria adopts good policies to drive gas development.
“Government must look at gas production critically and prioritise its development. We have huge deposits of gas in the country and must take its development very seriously. We must support indigenous companies, especially those that want to be involved in the upstream sector,” he added.
The Managing Director, Aiteo Exploration and Production Limited, Mr. Victor Okoronkwo, said that ensuring local content thrives would help the growth of the sector. He said that indigenous companies, such as Aiteo, had so many challenges affecting their development. According to him, apart from taxes, constant attacks on its facilities remain a big challenge.
“We witness constant vandalism, thereby interrupting our operations and in turn an economic sabotage. In 2019, we have recorded substantial shutdown. we have a cumulative two months shutdown and it has negative impact on the revenue of the company and the economy,’’ Okoronkwo said.
He added that the company recorded crude loss of 25 per cent to 35 per cent “between what is injected to the facility and what is received at the terminal,” saying the company had lost four million barrels of crude through damage on pipelines and other facilities during the year.