Nigeria's Energy Adviser on Trump Threats

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00:00I think we don't really understand the complexity, and so there's a lot of

00:03education that needs to happen so that people really understand it. The

00:07president's most senior appointee in the energy sector, I'm Christian, but the

00:13president is Muslim. He's married to a Christian. A lot of members of my family,

00:18whether they're in the U.S. or in Nigeria, we coexist peacefully as Muslims and

00:23Christians. So there is a small group of terrorists that equally attack, not

00:31really based on religion, and so it is to make sure that there is an understanding

00:36of that particular problem and that it's appropriately targeted. It's

00:42unfortunate because that level of sentiment and coming from the

00:46presidency in the U.S. means that a lot of the hard work that we've done over to

00:51reform our economy and attract capital from all sectors of the world could be

00:57in jeopardy because this is an issue that is not well understood. But we're going

01:00to take on that challenge. We've done it before. We've educated many people about

01:04the complexities of Nigeria and, more importantly, the opportunities of

01:07Nigeria, and there's a lot to learn about the way that we coexist peacefully

01:11across multiple religions in Nigeria.

01:13I was going to say, as it pertains to the work that you do, specifically in the

01:17energy industry, how important is it that the relationship is mandated with the U.S.

01:23right now?

01:24Oh, really important, yeah. So we've done a lot of work to make sure that we're

01:27attractive as an investment destination, not only to U.S. investors, but to global

01:32other investors across the globe. We're making new friends, keeping our old friends. We

01:37have Exxon, we have Chevron, who've operated in Nigeria for decades, and we hope they'll be

01:43there for decades to come. And they will also be good ambassadors about the opportunities

01:47that they've realized, jobs they've created for Americans, and so that they can help us

01:52attract additional American companies from the private sector to participate in the opportunity

01:57that is Nigeria.

01:58So let's talk about that. I believe recently you said that you're expecting $20 billion

02:03of oil and gas investment by 2029. Where is that investment expected to go?

02:09So we've done a lot. The president has done a lot over the last two and a half years to

02:13make sure that we improve the investment climate in Nigeria. So we've improved our fiscals to

02:20make sure it's a lot more competitive. We're now top three. In 2024, we're considered the

02:25top three destination amongst 14 peer countries. A lot of those investments are going into oil,

02:30gas, and increasingly that's going to enable us power. Our industries, homes, businesses make

02:37our exports more competitive. So although it's going into the upstream, so we've catalyzed

02:42about $8 billion so far in 18 months. All of those have come from international investors,

02:47big international investors in our markets. And the next 20 is also going to come from those

02:52investors and some also indigenous independents that are emerging that we've created as a result

02:57of those reforms as well. A lot of those investments are going to go into gas as well as oil. When we enable

03:04supply of gas, we are hoping to catalyze midstream, downstream that will deepen access and affordability

03:09for the Nigerian businesses, ensure that we are also able to diversify our gas exports, make sure

03:16we're not so commodity dependent that we start to add more value to our gas and petrochemical,

03:21make sure we create petrochemicals, agricultural inputs, things like that.

03:25So that $20 billion is essentially a tally of the commitments?

03:28It's a tallying of the commitments. They're two major final investment decisions that we're expecting

03:33over the next 12 months. So in oil and gas space, but it's a tallying of all of the opportunities

03:38that we see along the value chain.

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