Stakeholders in the oil and gas sector have said that previous bid rounds in Nigeria’s marginal oil fields revealed a sharp decline in interest from serious investors, both local and foreign.
This, according to the stakeholders is as a result of secrecy surrounding the licensing round, which has led to loss of interest and confidence in the system by the investors.
To address this problem, the stakeholders recommended that terms governing licensing round must be opened and transparent, saying that this will boost investors confidence.
According to a communique issued at the end of a one-day workshop on improving transparency in the oil licensing process, the stakeholders also recommended that the National Assembly should provide oversight of bidding processes for the purpose of transparency.
The workshop was organized by a coalition of civil society organisations and the media.
The communique, jointly signed by Peter Egbule, for Coalition of Civil Society Organisations and Bassey Udo, Media Initiative on Transparency in Extractive Industries; also stated that the bidding processes should be audited by the Nigeria Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (NEITI), while there should be continuous monitoring before, during and after the bid process by civil society organizations and the media.
