By Abubakar Yunusa
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, NUPRC, says the country’s total annual upstream capital expenditure has decreased from 27 billion dollars in 2014 to less than six billion dollars in 2022.
The Chief Executive of NUPRC, Gbenga Komolafe, revealed this l on the sideline of the World Petroleum Congress, WPC, held on Sunday in Calgary, Canada.
Mr Komolafe, represented by the Executive Commissioner, Mr Kelechi Ofoegbu, the figure represented a 74 per cent decrease in its capital expenditure, CAPEX.
He attributed the decline in CAPEX to several factors, while emphasising that regulatory uncertainty, significantly impacted investment in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry.
Mr Komolafe further said that prevalent in the years preceding the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, also affected investment in the industry.
The event was jointly organised by Cabtree Consulting, the Gas Aggregation Company of Nigeria, GACN, and CarbonAi x-rayed.
The topic was “Nigeria and Canada: Collaborating to Decarbonise Nigeria’s Oil and Gas Sector”.
He said other factors are de-funding of fossil fuel development occasioned by energy transition and the global call for decarbonisation.
According to him, most International Oil Companies, IOCs, deprioritised Nigeria in their portfolios which led to the redirection of CAPEX to other countries.
This, he noted, was with attendant dwindling investment in Nigeria’s upstream sector.
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