Where Senegal is striving to dominate

Few weeks ago, Senegal was drawn into a cuisine-contest, which by all signs is totally out of the country’s focus, when the famous CNN presenter, Richard Quest, asked Nigeria’s minister of information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, which country makes better Jollof rice, a popular West African delicacy. The minister, surprisingly, chose Senegal.

Unsurprisingly, the minister’s response triggered outcry amongst Nigerians on social media who expected the minister to have named his country. Quest’s effort to clarify that the minister misunderstood his question notwithstanding, many Nigerians still find it difficult to forgive the minister’s “treason”.

Ironically, Senegal and her nationals are clearly disinterested in the whole conversation. And this is because the francophone West African nation is preoccupied with more consequential matters.

By every indication, Senegal is working hard to be a major Foreign Investment Destination (FID) for the oil industry in the Gulf of Guinea, and a good reference point in the governance of the sector in Africa. This lofty ambition is apparent in the several discussions, agreements and growing interest of many reputable international oil companies in Senegal.

While it’s not out of place to call the country a newcomer in the upstream division, Senegal, interestingly, is better described as a precocious baby mastering its steps so quickly to the admiration of and commendations from keen industry watchers. What’s more? A Financial Times report quotes Paolo Zacchia, a chief economist with the World Bank as saying that “Senegal is in a better position than many other African countries in terms of governance.”

Undoubtedly, assurances of this kind can boost any nation’s economic activities as they can help attract foreign investors. For instance, Total, a major player in global oil operations, runs a refinery in Senegal, which is one of the places crude from Nigeria is refined, and has just sealed an agreement with the government of Senegal for the development of Senegal’s oil reserves.

“An established player in refining and marketing in Senegal, Total is delighted to expand its presence in the country in the exploration & production segment. These agreements are part of the Group’s strategy to carry out exploration activities in new deepwater basins in Africa and leverage our world renowned expertise. Total is pleased to be bringing our know-how to the promising exploration zones in Senegal,” said Patrick Pouyanné, the company’s Chairman and CEO.

Similarly, Cairn, a UK-based oil and gas exploration and development company is convinced of the business prospects and investment-friendliness of the Senegal market as shown by its endeavours in the country. In 2014, Cairn succeeded in drilling two wells, discovering oil in both and opening a new hydrocarbon basin on the Atlantic Margin, one of the discoveries recognised as the largest global oil discovery in 2014.

At the risk of overstating the obvious, doesn’t Nigerian need such an atmosphere that allows businesses, foreign and local, to thrive? But our lack of planning, commitment and vision continues to rob us of our rightful place in global economics.

Isn’t it rather unfortunate that for over a decade, successive Nigerian governments have failed to pass the Petroleum Industry Government Bill (PIGB) into law? The PIGB is an essential piece of legislation that can help provide efficient and effective governance for the industry.

Meanwhile, having equally been redrafted and tossed back and forth by previous legislative assemblies, the present assembly has vowed to put an end to the unwarranted delay so far suffered by the bill. And we are waiting!

It’s quite saddened that Africa’s largest oil producer is just pressing the need for an agreement with AGIP, an international oil company, to refine her crude oil according to Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu.

“In the meeting we dealt with the issue of Agip investment in Zabazaba field and their cooperation with us in the repairs of Port Harcourt refinery.

“We reached an agreement that Agip will build a brand new refinery of 150,000 barrels capacity which will be located in Port Harcourt or Brass, they have accepted and are preparing an MOU along this line.

“The effect of this is that oil companies operating in Nigeria will begin to migrate from only exporting crude and begin to look on how to start refining these crude so that we will be able to meet our local consumption”, said the Minister.

Meanwhile, equally instructive is the dissimilarity between the Senegalese and their Nigerian counterparts. While the Senegalese are already out demanding openness and engagement of wider stakeholders in the affairs of an upstream activity that is yet to fully come on stream, their Nigerian counterparts don’t seem to give a hoot.

If only Nigerians especially those on social media can consistently amplify the gross disservice in the delay over the passage of the PIGB, and other pressing matters like they did the Jollof-war, perhaps those in government will be compelled to take their responsibilities more seriously.