Nigeria proposes new tax incentives to attract deepwater gas exploration investors

(Bloomberg) — Nigeria hopes to attract as much as $10 billion of new investments in deep-water gas exploration through tax breaks and other measures proposed in a new policy framework for the industry, according to a government official.

The Federal Executive Council has approved the framework, which will now move to the National Assembly to be passed into law, President Bola Tinubu said earlier this week.

The new policy framework seeks to speed up developments in Nigeria’s offshore gas sector, where an estimated 67% of the resource remains undeveloped, by providing tax credits for new investments, Tinubu’s special adviser Olu Verheijen said in a statement Thursday. 

Africa’s top crude producer also plans a gas-production allowance for greenfield developments in onshore and shallow-water locations that start producing by Jan. 1, 2029, according to documents seen by Bloomberg.

“We intend to unlock between $5 billion to $10 billion of new investments in Nigeria in the near- to medium-term,” Verheijen said.

Once passed into law, the policy is expected to fast-track the development of natural gas, displace fossil fuels for transportation and bolster the country’s energy security, said Verheijen, who also heads the Energy Office of the Presidency,

Global companies will spend an estimated $90 billion on deep-water oil and gas projects in the coming years, she said. “This is the pool of funds that our reforms are targeting,” she said.

Since assuming office in May 2023, Tinubu has implemented a series of reforms that he said have attracted more than $30 billion in foreign direct investment. While the policy overhaul has been welcomed by foreign investors, it’s spawned a cost-of-living crisis in Africa’s most-populous nation that triggered deadly protests.