Nigeria: Banks invest in Shell Petroleum’s divestment

Twenty-five Nigerian banks have invested $2.5 billion on Shell Petroleum divestment in the oil and gas sector in 2014, Mr Abolore Solebo, Head of Oil and Gas (Upstream), Fidelity Bank, has said.At a presentation on securing credible investors at a one-day marginal field sensitization organised by Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Lagos on Saturday, Solebo said investment in the oil and gas upstream in Nigeria had been on the vanguard of banks.
The Nigerian banking industry had grown tremendously in exploration and production transactions, he said.
According to him, Fidelity Bank will not hesitate to partner with any marginal fields operators that have proven track records in areas of its operations.
“The ongoing decline in crude oil price has affected the oil and gas investment in banking sector.
“Companies with proven record have accessed over 30 million dollars loan on investment from Fidelity bank,” he said.
Dr Emmanuel Enu, Director of Exploration, First Exploration and Production Company, made a presentation on “Setting up an Information Memorandum on Marginal Fields in Nigeria”.
Enu advised marginal field operators to improve on their business packaging to attract investors and said that the inability of marginal field operators to secure funding was due to lack of business document packaging that was missing to attract financing from banks.