Stakeholders Urge Oil Service Firms to Develop Capacity in Natural Gas

Peter Uzoho

Following Nigeria’s adoption of natural gas as its transition fuel, the country’s oil service companies have been urged to key into the ‘Decade of Gas’ initiative by the federal government and develop capacity around the resource.

Managing Director, Global Process and Pipeline Services Limited (GPPSL), Mr. Obi Uzu; Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Mr. Simbi Wabote; and Managing Director, Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SNEPCO), Mrs Elohor Aiboni, made the submission in Abuja at the 2022 Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES).

They spoke at a panel session, which focused on “Competitive Landscape and Sustainable Development of In-Country Value Addition.” 

Uzu stated that it was important for local oil service companies to build capacity around natural gas and the allied industries in the value chain, which include power, petrochemical, fertiliser, pharmaceutical amongst others.

 “Building capacity for our local oil service companies should hinge on process, plan, strategy and resources,” he stated.

On the global response to energy transition, he advised that the country should focus on developing enough capacity to exploit the remaining God-given hydrocarbon resources as the developed countries were already turning their back on fossil fuels.

“The success of the Nigerian Local Content intervention can be ascribed to the efforts of the NCDMB and its leadership. Nigeria’s local content experiment has become the poster boy of in-country value addition for other African countries with extractive resources,”Uzu said.

In her contribution, Aiboni stressed that the pivot of local content should be to stimulate local manufacturing for home-grown solutions as that was the only way to drive down costs and stay competitive.

The session explored different in-country value addition scenarios critical to robust enhancement of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry with the mission to encourage the use of local labour, goods and services at different stages of the oil and gas value chain.