Featured, Oil & Gas
By Anthony Isibor
SEN. Heineken Lokpobiri, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, has charged the National Oil Companies, NOCs, to take up the challenge of pioneering a new global order for the oil and gas industry.
The minister, who spoke at the plenary of the National Oil Companies Forum at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit on Wednesday in Abuja, called on the NOCs to collaborate and ensure that this potential is realised.
Lokpobiri noted that today’s session affords the opportunity to be able to listen to the NOCs representatives to speak on how we can come up with brilliant ideas on how to fashion out a future for the oil and gas sector
According to him, the NOCs are very strategic because they carry the burden of ensuring that the welfare and the wellbeing of the people are secured.
He disclosed that Nigeria gets 80% of all of her fuels from oil and this has been possible through the national oil company, which is the NNPC Ltd.
“So, if the NNPC coughs, the country will be affected and if NNPCL has a problem, Nigeria will be affected and so goes for most of the NOCs that we now know. Some of them hold strategic position in their respective economies.
“For me, the NOCs will find a way in view of the new global trend where there is a smear campaign that we should abandon fossil fuel.
“Those who are telling us to abandon fossil fuel are not abandoning fossil fuel. So I expect that the NOCs have a strategic role to play in fashioning out a new global order for the oil and gas industry.
“For us as government, we will always be there to give them the necessary support to be able to achieve the objectives of setting up the NOC by various countries.
“So today’s panel has the sole responsibility of sharing experiences, discussing ways of strategic collaboration among National Oil Companies and then, see how we can change the tide of this global campaign of abandoning fossil fuel.
He also disclosed that the Nigerian government is not against transitioning, but rather demanding that she is allowed to transition at its own time and pace.
“It is also my candid opinion that as a country, we want a situation where people will align with us to explore oil and gas in a more environmentally friendly and sustainable way. Not abandoning it and those who are claiming that they have abandoned it have not.
“The difference here is that they may have access to finance their own investment in the oil and gas sector and we may not have and that is why we are saying that we must come up with some genius ideas to be able to raise funding dedicated to funding the oil and gas sector in Africa.
“You can never get any better climate for investment than in Nigeria. We are ensuring that our fiscal, our regulatory framework, everything is competitive, but the challenge that we are confronted with now is that the investment is not enough.
“But the NOCs have a duty to see how they can collaborate among themselves and having joint investments.
“So we want to listen to you guys to tell us what the best ways to collaborate, what best ways we can get the financing that is required. Because without financing, we won’t even be able to do anything.
“So, on behalf of the government, I want to thank you for being part of this year’s NIES, and I want to say that the NOCs, you are not just stakeholders, but you are the architects of a new global order as far as the oil and gas industry is concerned,” he added.
A I
Tags: NIES2024 Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri
