Sylva, Kyari, Auwalu to Speak at SPE Oloibiri Lecture

By Peter Uzoho

As global oil and gas industry prepares for business activities post COVID-19, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, will be leading stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry to brainstorm on critical industry issues at the 2021 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum (OLEF).

Sylva will be presenting an industry address at the event scheduled to hold on March 18, 2021, in Abuja.
The lecture, with the theme: “Operational Excellence and Portfolio Optimisation, Way forward for the Oil and Gas Industry Post COVID-19”, will also feature the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, who will be giving a keynote address on industry operations.

According to the Chairman of SPE Nigeria Council, Mr. Olatunji Akinwunmi, the Director of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), Mr. Sarki Auwalu, will also feature at the event and deliver an address on the regulation of oil and gas industry operations in Nigeria.

Akinwunmi told journalists at a media briefing recently, ahead of the event that, the event will be held both physically and virtually, with the greater percentage of the participants billed to join online in adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines.

He added that the programme was structured in two major sections comprising the Energy Forum and the Lecture Series, adding the council had invited 10 speakers to delivered top notch discussions in the various sub-topics of the energy forum and lecture series.

He further said: “OLEF 2021 is an open hybrid event that requires no paid registration. A few invited individuals and SPE committee members are expected to make up the in-person participants.

“All stakeholders in the energy industry; operators of JV, regulatory and government, production sharing contractors, independent operators, finance and insurance industry players, the academia and many more are free to attend online or in-person as their invitation indicates.

“The theme will be discussed along the following perspectives:

Industry – Government – Academia partnership: articulating the individual roles each stakeholder is required to play as well as establishing a strategic collaboration and partnership that enables industry-wide operational excellence and portfolio optimisation.”

Akinwunmi stated that other areas to be discussed at the event included developing competencies in regulation; assuring safety and sustainability and reducing the overall costs of doing business through competence in regulation; adjusting operational models to reduce cost and capture value by reevaluating operational strategies such that short term cost improvements are balanced with long term change and value realisation, among others.