The group managing director of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC), Mele Kyari, has said that African countries, including Nigeria, must leverage technology and innovation to facilitate energy access and transition.
Delivering a lecture at the weekend titled “Energy transition and energy accessibility – The new paradigm” at the 30th convocation ceremony of the Federal University of Technology, Minna, Niger State, the NNPC boss said there is the need for African countries to leverage technology and innovation so as to support energy sufficiency, industrialization, job creation and economic growth.
According to him, findings have shown that while global transition to renewable energy will definitely continue to gain momentum, the pace may not be fast enough to offset the impacts of worldwide economic expansion and population growth.
Kyari held that rising global population especially in Asia and Africa, where young people account for almost a half of the population will significantly push energy demand upward where renewable energy sources cannot meet by 2050.
Efforts to transit energy systems, he posited, would involve changes, not only to energy technologies and prices, but also to the broader social-economic assemblages that are built around energy production and consumption.
Kyari said as global energy consumption grows from the 2018 levels to about 50% by 2050, it is apparent that oil and gas will continue to be a crucial component of the world’s future energy.
He informed that as a national oil company, the NNPC is determined to achieve carbon neutrality, using Nigeria’s abundant natural gas resources as a low carbon alternative that will help improve access to energy to power the Nigerian economy.
The company is currently building on the convergence of new technologies and innovative business models that would guarantee access to energy for the future.
“To achieve seamless transition to cleaner energy, global players must promote diversification of energy sources to improve global access to energy and reduce absolute number of people without access to energy especially in Africa.
“As Africa’s largest national oil company, we are building on the convergence of new technologies and innovative business models to guarantee access to energy for today and tomorrow.
“NNPC has set the necessary machineries to lead Africa in transition to low-carbon energy and renewables. We are deepening natural gas utilization under the National Gas Expansion Programme.
“NNPC is currently extending natural gas infrastructure backbone from Ajaokuta in Kogi state to Kano through Abuja and Kaduna under the AKK Gas Pipeline Project.
“This mega pipeline will be fed by both Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System (ELPS) and Obiafu-Obrikom-Oben (OB3) gas pipelines through Oben node in Edo state and deliver 2bscf of natural gas to power plants and industrial off-takers along Abuja, Kaduna and Kano.
By Chibisi Ohakah, Abuja
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