Energy
By Anthony Isibor
AUDREY Joe-Ezigbo, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Falcon Corporation, has said that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) should be able to solve most of the energy challenges in the country.
Speaking at the International Conference 2022 of the National Association of Energy Correspondents of Nigeria, NAEC, on Thursday in Lagos, Ezigbo stressed the need to urgently address the energy challenges in the country as “energy has become a tool for geo-political positioning and power play”.
She noted that there are so many variances that are currently impacting on both local and global energy landscape.
“This calls for serious food for thought, it calls for us to rethink our regulatory policies and framework, and it definitely calls for us to begin to take some very fruit-focused future, forward actions with more urgency than ever before.
“Africa as we know is home to a 5th of the global population of the world, and as we know, by 2023, Africa is set to replace India and China as the most populous regions of the world. Yet within this context, know that we are quite familiar that less than 50% population of sub-Saharan Africa has access to basic electricity.
“This impacts very negatively, it constrains on the economic development, it constrains on development, and most importantly, the quality of life of the people. And so when we begin to think about this in the context also of the continent and more specifically Nigeria, we can see that Africa is central to the energy transition conversation globally, and that those events that are happening on the global scene very much find their bearing here in Nigeria,” she said.
According to her, with this unfolding developments, Nigeria cannot continue to do business as usual, ‘something must shift’.
Ezigbo, who chaired the conference, also called for an increased investment in renewable energy, comprising wind and solar and natural gas, which have been declared by the European Union as a clean energy, among others.
In his contribution, Farouk Ahmed, CEO, Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Regulatory Agency, NMDR, who was represented by Zainab Gobre, Executive Director, Economic Regulation and Strategic Planning of the NMDR, noted that the PIA has created outstanding opportunities for Nigeria
“Some of the initiatives that Nigeria has taken to facilitate a shift to a gas based economy towards the current energy transition goals, will help to increase energy access, increase domestic consumption and provide an alternative energy source.
“The National Gas Expansion Programme for the penetration and utilization of LPG, CNG, and DLNG, the Nigeria Gas Square Commercialization Programme; this can unlock and generate approximately 2.5 gig watts of power, 600 tonnes of LPG annually, and create 300,000 direct and indirect jobs while eliminating carbon emission and providing clean energy for the 6 million households.”
In the same vein, Adogbeji Oseragbaje, Chief Executive of Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited listed some of the challenges faced by the oil and gas industry to include Nigeria’s inability to find its place in the global industry, and maintaining the key priorities, which include energy security, development of assets for the Nigerian and all stakeholders, while still contributing to the challenges of sustainability and ensuring the incredible, just transitioning from one energy source to another.
“I think that as Africa’s largest economy and the sixth producer of crude oil in the world, we cannot over discuss these subjects, we also cannot forget what is important to us as a society, both in Nigeria and in Africa,” he said.
He urged all the participants at the NAEC conference to define what the narrative for Nigeria needs to be in the energy transition, focusing on the country’s energy security, financial and production sustainability, as well as how to address the security issues facing the productivity of the industry in Nigeria.
“I also encourage you to explore the role that each stakeholder could play in making a success of the statutory provisions in the PIA for the benefit of all,” he added.
The theme of the conference was “Energy Transition: Shaping the future or Nigeria’s Energy industry, an appraisal of PIA, Evolving Benefits and Challenges”.
A.I
Tags: Audrey Joe-Ezigbo dogbeji Oseragbaje Falcon Corporation
