Yemisi Izuora

The Federal Government is considering embarking on an oil and gas roadshow to woo back international energy companies that quit its onshore sector

The executive secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB)

Felix Omatsola Ogbe, was quoted as scheduling to execute the project.

Nigeria  has struggled to raise production after international oil companies including Shell and ExxonMobil exited it’s onshore fields to focus on deep offshore exploration.

The Federal Government had hoped that local companies could reverse output decline from the Niger Delta.

Ogbe, said on Monday he would meet with President Bola Tinubu’s energy adviser to discuss the planned roadshow, for which a timeline had yet to be set.

“We intend to have roadshows in the country of origin of those companies to encourage those that have left our shores to come back,” Ogbe said at the ongoing oil and gas conference in the in Abuja, without elaborating how Nigeria planned to convince them to reconsider.

Shell said in March it would divest from Nigeria’s troubled onshore oil sector, joining Exxon, Italy’s Eni and China’s Addax which have struck deals to sell assets in the country in recent years.

Oil firms have long complained about insecurity in the Niger Delta, pipeline vandalism and crude theft as well as recent oil legislation which overhauled fiscal terms in the sector.