Nigeria Flaunts 37Bn barrels Oil, 215 Trn cf gasoline reserves, Takes Manhunt For Billionaire Investors To Abu Dhabi

● ‘Capital Is Blind, Nigeria Is Open: Lokpobiri, Ekpo say Country Safe, Secured, Predictable, Profitable; Insist Nigeria Is The Answer

Nigeria’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, and his gasoline counterpart, Ekpo, have instructed international power traders that Nigeria is the most secure guess for his or her subsequent wave of oil and gasoline investments.

NOP NIGERIA stories that the ministers spoke on the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (ADIPEC) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, one of many world’s largest power gatherings.

“If we don’t make investment today, there will be energy insecurity tomorrow. And, when you want to invest, it is important to look for a safe, secured and predictable country and I tell you that Nigeria represents all these,” Lokpobiri declared.

He made the remarks throughout a high-level panel titled “Competing for Capital: Who Will Win The Next Wave of Energy Investment?” moderated by John Defteterios, Chairman, MENA APCO Board Member, SEforALL.

Other panelists on the session included Ivan Petroca, Minister of Energy, Republic of Bulgaria; Admiral Sahmanovic, Minister of Energy and Mining, Montenegro; Dr. Juma Zuberi Homera, Minister of Energy, United Republic of Tanzania; and Sheikh Niane, Deputy Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Republic of Senegal.

Lokpobiri used the worldwide stage to restate a message he has constantly pushed at different worldwide fora — that capital is cell and Nigeria is able to welcome it.

“I often say in Nigeria that capital is blind; it goes where it is welcomed,” he had mentioned earlier on the seventeenth International Energy Forum Ministerial Meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on October 11, 2026.

The minister has additionally warned that power safety can’t be an afterthought, some extent he emphasised once more in Riyadh: “Energy security is built before a crisis, not during one”.

According to him, strategic planning, resilient infrastructure and sustained funding in manufacturing capability are important to making sure dependable and reasonably priced power provides, particularly for creating economies like Nigeria.

He argued that traders want greater than assets; they want certainty. “They need to know the rules. They need to know those rules will not suddenly change halfway through a project. They need approval processes that do not take forever,” he instructed delegates in Riyadh.

Lokpobiri famous that the Federal Government has been working to supply that certainty by reforms below the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA 2021, improved collaboration with the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, and removing of bottlenecks that slowed funding.

The reforms, he mentioned, are already yielding outcomes, with Nigeria’s crude manufacturing rising to 1.821 million barrels per day as of October, up from about a million bpd when the administration took workplace, pushed by greater than 70 energetic rigs in comparison with fewer than 10 in 2023.

For the Abu Dhabi viewers, the message was clear: with 37 billion barrels of oil and 215 trillion cubic ft of gasoline, a predictable regulatory atmosphere, and respect for agreements, Nigeria isn’t just competing for capital — it intends to win it.

NOP NIGERIA

NOP NIGERIA