The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd), says the cooperation with Nigerian security has significantly reduced the scale of oil theft in the Niger Delta Region, following the discovery of several illegal pipes.
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) NNPC Ltd, Malam Mele Kyari made this known on Tuesday in Abuja at the ongoing Energy and Labour Summit 2022 organised by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
Kyari, in a keynote address, spoke on “Energy Transition: Positioning the Nigeria Energy Industry for the Future (Government Perspective)”.
The GCEO while speaking on a wide-range of industry issues such as Energy Transition, Petroleum Industry Act 2021, a brand new NNPCLtd, tackling crude oil theft, he underscored the need for collaboration to halt the crude oil theft to spur economic growth.
“The situation of vandals action on our pipelines and generality of crude oil theft has reach to the point that it needs all to react. The government security and regulatory agencies, whether service or operating are on the table today,” he said.
Kyari, while expressing optimism that the country will have access to more crude – and revenue in the coming weeks said the PIA passage had made the industry competitive, bringing companies back for investments while business decisions were being made.
Also speaking, Mr Gbenga Komolafe, Commission Chief Executive (CCE), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) commended PENGASSAN for organising the event which dwelt on “Energy Transition and its Effect on Workforce in the Nigerian Oil and Gas Sector”.
Komolafe lauded PENGASSAN on its constructive roles in ensuring industrial peace and harmony, even as the industry was challenged by global and domestic factors like energy transition, climate change, paucity of financing, crude oil theft and a host of other constraints.
The CCE said remarkably, the oil and gas industry in Nigeria had contributed immensely to the economic growth of Nigeria for over five decades.
Through this period, he said the industry metamorphosed from one dominated solely by international Operators, to an industry with many indigenous players pulling their weight positively across operations in the petroleum value chain.
He said the success and growth witnessed in the industry over this period could be hinged on robust government policies such as Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development Act and PIA 2021 and other regulations, Investments and a competent workforce.
“Nigeria could further strengthen the resilience of our resources by considering initiatives to decarbonise existing oil and gas operations and continue to encourage investment in lower-carbon energy infrastructure such as gas pipelines.
“It is expected that gas reserves would be a more resilient energy source under a range of energy transition scenarios,” said the CCE.
He further listed some robust regulatory enablers to facilitate these energy resilience approaches that would make our hydrocarbon projects low carbon emitters and more attractive to investors to include the National Policy on Decade of Gas which is hinged on the Natural Gas Expansion Programme.
Others, according to him are Natural Gas Flare Commercialisation Programme, Natural Gas Flare Elimination and Monetisation Plan in line with Section 110 of the PIA, 2021.
He also included Guideline for Management of Fugitive Methane and Greenhouse Gases Emissions in the Upstream Oil and Gas Operations in Nigeria and the inclusion of Gas Infrastructure Fund in PIA.
He underscored the need to begin to develop local innovative financing solutions to develop our huge gas resources as the number of international traditional investors have dropped drastically.
To this end, he said the Africa Export Import bank (Afrexim) and Africa Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO) had decided to set up an Africa Energy Bank to provide capital for oil and gas projects in Africa.
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