By Alex Yomah
The first Vice president for Finance of the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL), Emmanuel Zango, says he is hopeful of revving the sector to attract ‘real money’.
Zango said he will work to help revive the entity by designing and executing a new investment strategy to increase the resources at the disposal of NOCAL and raise the profile of the Liberian Petroleum Development Program.
“We seem to be stuck on the traditional sources of revenue; selling data and seeking royalties,” Zango observed, adding that the real money is in attracting meaningful and transformative investments through partnerships.
“There are global trends that are favorable and we will use them to pursue hefty investments that will make Liberia attractive again,” he said.
“We will draw on the positive momentum currently in the global oil exploration that has attracted over 100 billion dollars worldwide to exploration rigs,” he added.
He stated that his focus over the next couple of weeks will be to craft an investment strategy that will attract major Gulf countries’ national oil companies to strengthen NOCAL’s technical and financial capabilities to explore oil, alongside private sector actors.
“The war in Ukraine has led to the isolation of Russian oil by European countries. Those European countries will have to replace the Russian oil that they are isolating in their war efforts and most of their companies are looking to Africa and they are increasingly investing in exploration. Liberia will need to position herself to attract some of that money,” the NOCAL Veep noted.
“Liberia is also uniquely positioned to attract investments and partnerships with Gulf countries trying to diversify away from their conflict-prone region. And my department will take a more active role in this regard,” he said.
“We take the view that multiple drilling will lead to more investments and increase the chance of Liberia striking commercially viable oil. While the administration and we at NOCAL know the global need to move away from fossil fuels, we see tremendous opportunities to grow the nation’s economy by responsibly tapping into our country’s hydrocarbon potential,” Zango stated.
He pledged that as the new team is taking over NOCAL, they are not only just taking over, but will keep an open mind and take stock of what predecessors have achieved and leverage that to grow and make NOCAL a source of national prosperity.
He pointed out that the return of Exxon Mobil, as was announced last April, is a clear signal that more drilling and exploration in Liberian waters is a sound investment and that Liberian petroleum exploration is a worthy investment. “We will build on and step up this momentum,” he concluded.
