Nigerian petroleum engineers under the aegis of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Nigeria Council (SPENC), have maintained that Nigeria needs adaptive strategies to address its energy deficit.
According to SPENC, only implementable energy policy can help the country maximize its massive natural gas resources.
This was stated by the chairman of SPENC, Olalekan Olafuyi, at a press conference preparatory to the 2022 Nigeria Annual International Conference and Exhibition (NAICE) in Lagos.
The Council pointed out that there is the need for strict enforcement of gas flaring penalties on oil companies in order to prevent such ugly incidents as it has negatively affected not only the Nigerian oil and gas sector but the country’s economy.
The SPENC also said that to achieve President Muhammadu Buhari’s assurance that Nigeria is committed to attain net zero carbon emission by 2060, the federal government must deploy adaptive strategies that protect Nigerians from the socio-economic impact.
The NAICE is a yearly event of the SPE with the 2022 edition scheduled to hold from August 1, to August 3, in Lagos.
According to Olafuyi, the conference with the theme, “Global Transition to Renewable and Sustainable Energy and the Future of Oil and Gas in Africa”, is in line with the current realities in Nigeria and across the African continent.
He noted that despite huge oil and gas deposits in Nigeria, the country has continued to struggle with high energy deficit which has led to acute poverty and wide scale of unemployment across the six geopolitical zones of the country.
Olafuyi said that “The world is facing the challenges of balancing the urgency of transition to cleaner energy with the obvious energy deficit and economic challenges experienced in recent times.”
He noted that “It is expected that adaptive strategies for energy transition should be adopted in Africa. This is the core of the conference.”
The chairman therefore called for massive investments in gas infrastructure across the country and establishment of policies that would support gas development and utilization.
Olafuyi, who also lamented the high rate of oil theft in Nigeria, however said that SPENC is ready to assist the government in proffering solutions that could curb the menace; adding that the activities of vandals and oil thieves were shortchanging Nigeria’s revenue and have become a major challenge to the industry.
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