The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists has said it will focus on a road map for the nation’s oil and gas industry at its 35th Annual International Conference and Exhibition as the government’s continued efforts to diversify the economy.
NAPE said the conference would also throw its searchlight on survival strategies for petroleum exploration and exploitation in a challenging environment and examine the effectiveness in the existing policies to drive growth in the industry so as to come up with initiatives for the development of road maps and new policy initiatives.
The President, NAPE, Mr. Abiodun Adesanya, said at a briefing in Lagos that the major critical issues in the Nigerian energy industry would be discussed during the conference, scheduled to hold in Lagos from November 19 to 23, 2017.
He said, “Nigeria currently maintains an economically unstable negative net energy trade balance, in which the nation exports virtually all the crude oil produced and imports a substantial part of its refined petroleum products needs while under-utilising other energy sources such as bitumen, coal, lignite, and shale oil, thereby leading to a mono commodity economy that is largely dependent on crude oil export.
“Against the backdrop of low oil price, dwindling oil revenue, there have been strident calls for the nation to diversify her economy from the monolithic economy and absolute dependence on oil into other areas to sustain the nation in terms of revenue generation.”
Giving details of NAPE’s 35th International Conference and Exhibition, Adesanya said Nigeria should diversify its economy to agriculture as well as the Mining Sector; as food is a basic necessity of life and the mining industry has some similarities with the Oil and gas industry.
According to him, “the Conference also throws its searchlight on survival strategies for petroleum exploration and exploitation in a challenging environment and also examine the effectiveness in the existing policies to drive growth in the oil and gas industry so as to come up with initiatives for the development of road maps and new policy initiatives.
Adesanya also said that Ibe Kachikwu, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Kayode Fayemi, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State, Jeffrey Ewing, Chairman/Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited and Maikanti Baru, Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, are some of the speakers at the event.
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