(Ecofin Agency) - The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has announced plans to revisit the fiscal terms of the existing Production Sharing Contracts (PSC) entered into by the Corporation with some International Oil and Gas Companies with the aim of seeking promising benefits to Nigeria based on prevailing realities in the industry.

Speaking at the France-Nigeria Business Forum organized to mark the State Visit of President Muhammadu Buhari to Paris, France,  Group Managing Director of the NNPC Dr. Ibe Kachikwu (picture), disclosed that in the weeks and months to come, the Corporation will be re-negotiating the contracts to extract as much benefit as possible for Nigeria.

 “We intend to begin the process of the re-negotiation of the PSCs to see what value chain and improvements we can have from these contracts. Some of the contracts were negotiated over 20 years ago and they have since been overtaken by new realities in the industry,’’ the GMD told Oilandgaspress.

He revealed that in carrying out a review of the existing PSCs, precaution must be taken not to create an anti-investment atmosphere as it may be counterproductive to the industry.

 “There is no country in Africa that has the kind of resource base Nigeria has; so France really needs to get more bullish if they want to compete in Nigeria with the very aggressive India, China, Germany … It’s a huge competition and I am looking forward to better days ahead,’’ he said adding that the global oil and gas community is showing unmatched excitement about the re-invigoration of the industry.

Dr. Kachikwu however noted that President Buhari’s vision for the industry is absolutely on track. “It is being honed every day: there is focus, transparency and diversified income streams’’.