Mineral: Nigeria invites Indian cos to explore

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Kolkata, Mar 26 The Nigerian government is in favour of giving preference to foreign Companies that invest in its power, oil and gas sectors as well as help explore mineral resources, according to Mustafa Bello, chief executive officer of the Nigeria Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC).

Speaking at the second Nigeria-India Business & Investment Forum, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and NIPC here on Wednesday, Bello said Nigeria has targeted to generate 10,000mw by 2009 as against its present capacity of 4000mw.

While it has roped in Indian power major NTPC Ltd to support its capacity addition projects, the Essar group is already into oil exploration there.

The Tatas are now looking for a property in Lagos to set up a new hotel as well as create an office space costing $5 million. They are likely to shift their office from Ghana to Lagos for controlling Africa operations with an intention to have a deeper foot print in the African automobile market, Bello said.

He said Nigeria has reserves of 34 different minerals, though most of them are untapped barring oil, gas, coal and iron ore. But generating more power is the country's top priority right now.

NTPC Ltd is already into a long-term engagement with Nigeria for developing its power sector. In return, the company wants to secure gas supplies for its stations in India.

Although Bello did not comment on the progress of NTPC's investment there, the company officials said it is supposed to make a three-phased foray into Nigeria. It includes maintaining its existing power plants, building a 700mw gas-based and a 500mw coal-based plant and imparting skills to Nigerians needed to run power plants. It may be noted that the Indian government had forwarded a draft memorandum of understanding to the Nigerian government last year following the latter's proposal for NTPC investment.

Essar Holdings Ltd, a unit of the Essar Global under the Essar group, has already bagged an offshore oil block with estimated reserves of 80 million barrel after Nigeria offered 45 exploration blocks last year.