The multinational stressed that the situation portends serious danger to the nation's future economic sustainability.
The Managing Director of Total E&P Nigeria, Mr.
NAPE had in October last year warned that the reduction in hydrocarbon exploration and steady depletion of the oil and gas reserves would drive
Sangster, however, attributed the oil reserves' depletion to uncertain fiscal and regulatory regimes, policies that make new investments unattractive and uncompetitive, and low oil prices, amongst others.
"As a body of explorationists, you, like every keen observer of the industry, should be concerned that as we deplete our oil and gas reserves as a nation, there are no proportionate exploration activities to ensure long term sustainability and replenishment of the resource that accounts for more than 90 per cent of the country's foreign exchange earnings.
"Combination of factors which include uncertain fiscal and regulatory regimes, policies that make new investments unattractive and uncompetitive, low oil prices, etc, are easily to blame for this development," Sangster said.
He said Total, as a key stakeholder in the Nigerian oil and gas industry, was prepared to work with the government, partners, and other stakeholders to address the bottlenecks to new exploration investments.
According to him, "I expect this session to also focus on these issues, even if this is not the topic of today's technical meeting."
Sangster reiterated the oil major's commitment to continue supporting
He said: "We are all aware of the raging COVID-19 pandemic which has held the world hostage for several months now. The adverse effect on lives and businesses, especially the oil and gas industry cannot be overemphasised.
"Total rose to the clarion call of the federal government along with its partners, led by the
"Total's contribution was
He disclosed that their downstream company,
He said
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