President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the gazetting of targeted, investment-linked incentives to support the proposed Bonga South West deep-offshore oil project being developed by Shell and its partners.
A statement issued on Thursday by the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Public Communication, Mr Sunday Dare, said the President also directed his Special Adviser on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, to facilitate the gazette of the incentives in line with Nigeria’s existing legal and fiscal frameworks.
Receiving a Shell delegation led by its Global Chief Executive Officer, Mr Wael Sawan, President Tinubu said the incentives were carefully designed to attract fresh capital while safeguarding government revenues.
“These incentives are not blanket concessions,” the President said. “They are ring-fenced and investment-linked, focused on new capital and incremental production, strong local content delivery, and in-country value addition.”
He stressed that the incentives were disciplined, targeted, and globally competitive, adding that his expectation was for the Bonga South West project to reach a Final Investment Decision within the first term of his administration.
President Tinubu described the project as strategic to Nigeria’s economy, noting its potential to create thousands of direct and indirect jobs, generate substantial foreign-exchange inflows, and deliver sustained government revenues over its lifespan.
According to him, the project would also deepen Nigerian participation in offshore engineering, fabrication, logistics, and energy services, further strengthening local capacity in the oil and gas sector.
The President reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to policy stability, regulatory certainty, and speed, saying these reforms were critical to restoring investor confidence and positioning Nigeria as a preferred destination for large-scale energy investments.
He also disclosed that Shell and its partners had invested nearly 7 billion dollars in Nigeria over the past 13 months, particularly in Bonga North and HI projects, describing the investments as evidence that ongoing economic and energy-sector reforms were yielding results.
In his remarks, Mr Sawan said Nigeria’s investment climate had improved significantly under the Tinubu administration, adding that Shell was increasingly confident in the country as a destination for long-term investment.
Members of the Shell delegation included senior executives from the company’s global and Nigerian leadership.
