(Adds details on Nigeria's output growth, petroleum bill,context)
ABUJA, March 17 (Reuters) - Consistently low oil prices willhamper Nigeria's bid to boost output to 4 million barrels perday (bpd), Oil Minister Diezani Alison-Madueke was quoted assaying on Tuesday at an oil and gas conference in the capitalAbuja.
"Flexibility in capex and funding in general will be furtherconstrained in the year 2015," the minister said in a speechread out by Joseph Dawha, group managing director of theNigerian National Petroleum Corp.
Africa's biggest oil producer has been hit hard by globaloil prices that have around halved since June, because itaccounts for up to 80 percent of government revenues and about95 percent of foreign reserves.
"Consistently depressed oil prices will limit the industry'sscope to manoeuvre ... and reaching the target of 4 millionbpd," the minister said. "The industry must challenge itself toraise funding in order to meet these targets."
Nigeria has been targeting this level for some time but hasstruggled to even regain its peak production of 2.44 million bpdin 2005, when militant movements attacked infrastructure in theoil producing delta region until the 2009 amnesty.
Output growth has since been stunted by legislativeuncertainties and rampant pipeline vandalism and oil theft.Average crude output was just under 2 million bpd in 2014,according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
A draft of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) drawn up tooverhaul the industry has been sitting with parliament since2008. Nigeria's lower house completed a report on the bill forthe first time last week but passing the law is still manystages away.
Markus Droll, Shell vice-president for Nigeria andGabon, told the conference that the company was extremelyconcerned about the impact of low oil prices on 2015 funding.
"Today most of the available funding in the industry isrequired to keep with the pace of decline. There is very littleleft over for growth," he said, adding that oilfield declinerates were as high as 15 to 20 percent.
Shell divested much of its onshore assets last year in partdue to oil theft, which has increased ahead of the 2015presidential elections. Droll said that a lack of fiscalpredictability was also holding back greater investment.
"Multi-year predictable funding is needed. We can't startprojects to only stop half-way through. It's just a waste ofeverybody's efforts," he said.
Wale Tinubu, group chief executive of Nigeria's Oando PLC, said that with high oil prices "we becamecomplacent...very few fields have been brought online in thelast few years".
"I expect to see downsizing, which worries me."
Tinubu said he believes oil thefts will worsen as theindustry lets more of its workers go. (Reporting by Julia Payne, Additional report by Libby George inLondon; Editing by Jason Neely, David Evans and Susan Thomas)
