Stakeholders Call for Massive Investment in Gas, R&D as PTI Summit Ends in Abuja

•Seek inter-agency collaborations

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

Operators, researchers and leaders in the Nigerian hydrocarbons industry yesterday said that massive investment in gas exploration and infrastructure will act as  a major game changer for the country in the coming years.

Reading from a communiqué emanating from a two-day programme organised by the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) in Abuja, the Director of Research and Development, PTI, Dr. Tina Isichei, stressed that the government should also seek to liberalise the sector.

The event was attended by the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri,  the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, among other heads of agencies in the sector.

The Dr Henry Adimula-led institution, noted that the conference resolved that Nigeria must develop structured standardised systems and be deliberate in developing new technologies for her gas infrastructure value chain to ensure sustainable development.

“Nigeria should leverage on the impact of divestment in the oil and gas industry to make a bold statement that we have come of age and have acquired the technical, managerial, and financial capabilities to develop the oil and gas industry.

“We need to develop gas investment solutions for the short, medium and long term as energy is the biggest catalyst for economic and national development. Nigeria has been blessed with natural gas resources in addition to oil and currently has a reserve of 207TCF. This is enough to support developments by leveraging digitalisation, innovation and technology across board.

“It is projected that by the year 2050, Nigeria will be the 3rd most populous country on earth, after China and India, thus necessitating an urgent need to think out of the box and proffer sustainable solutions to the country’s energy crisis.

“Considering the government policy of 2020-2030 as decade of gas, government should speed up the Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) investment and ensure all Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) importers set up a processing plants in Nigeria so that the commodity will be readily available and at affordable price,” the communiqué stated.

Besides, the players called on Nigeria to vigorously embark on the energy transition without compromising its already developed energy resources and the developmental need of our country.

“The federal government should take full advantage of the abundant gas reserves to diversify the Nigerian economy into agriculture, Information and Communication Technology (ICT),” the participants resolved.

Stakeholders also urged the federal government to liberalise the gas sector, formulate guiding policies and regulations that must be obeyed and allow the private sector to drive the economy.

According to the industry players, the future of the African oil and gas industry depends on deepening strategic collaborations between the continent’s oil and gas producers.

To keep up with the new trends in the sector, the participants urged the government to establish centres of excellence in PTI and universities to address contemporary human requirements in the oil and gas industry.

Besides, they advised the government to ensure and support collaboration between industry and the academia to build talent and knowledgeable workforce to meet up with the current energy transition need.

In addition, the stakeholders urged the government to encourage more tertiary institutions and corporate bodies to go off the national power grid by investing in CNG, LPG or renewable energies since this energy usage is cleaner, cheaper, and environmentally friendly.

Furthermore, it urged the sector to collaborate with the academic institutions in Nigeria such as the PTI to research into the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big Data technology to improve the gas exploration, distribution and utilisation in Nigeria.

“Data mining, Block chain, AI and Internet of Things (IoT) are gaining interest by Exploration and Production (E&P) companies, agricultural sectors, refineries and petrochemical companies; more investment needs to be carried out on their effective utilisations in-country,” the communiqué stated.

It urged the ministry of petroleum to ensure the integrity and security of supplies of CNG and LNG to the various plants, thereby increasing gas penetration and utilisation by local users, for power, transportation, industrial and domestic purposes.

“Nigeria should ensure the domiciling of the proposed African Energy Bank (AEB) in-country to easily facilitate oil and gas energy projects financing.

“For Nigeria to be among 50 developed nations by the year 2050, we have to believe in ourselves and make vigorous efforts to support R&D for the purpose of domesticating many technologies.

“Nigeria must expand sources of funding R&D to PTI and other academic institutions through incentives like tax credit etc. Research should be coordinated so that outputs can be market driven,” the participants stressed.