By Akindotun Akintomide
With the global climate crisis driving action and investment towards energy transition initiatives, the Nigerian government can promote an eco-friendly regulatory environment which offers a space for enterprises to take advantage of the growing basket of opportunities in new technologies for sustainable energy sources.
“The rising need for transition towards renewable energy; reduction in energy poverty and the global geopolitics around a just transition require strategic reappraisal of the energy industry in Nigeria”, declares James Edet, President of National Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).
NAPE, an association of geoscientists primarily working in the petroleum industry and academia, is the largest grouping of technical professionals operating in the African oil patch.
Edet spoke at a media parley ahead of NAPE’s 40th Annual International Conference and Exhibition, slated for 13-17 November, 2022. He said that experts, at the talkfest, will project new ideas for pathways to newer, more climate-friendly energy for all, at the event.
NAPE boasts of over 12,000 members across Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. This year’s conference will host high level industry practitioners, key personnel in government and the academia who will deliver technical papers centered on the conference theme: ‘Global Energy Transition & the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry: Evolving Regulations, Emerging Concepts & Opportunities.’
Mele Kyari, CEO of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary, Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and Roger Brown, CEO, Seplat Energy Plc. are among keynote speakers set to headline the conference.
“Nigeria has an Energy transition plan to get us to net zero greenhouse gas emission by 2060”, Edet notes, “however, there are many factors that need to be considered and appropriately addressed in the nation’s shift to its sustainable energy future.
“The reality of the climate change is facing Nigeria with desertification in the north and flooding in the south and some parts of the north. This change calls for significant reduction of carbon emissions while ensuring available and affordable electricity”.
The NAPE President says the “The oil and gas industry has a role to play towards the successful implementation of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) and the Climate Change Act, both of which have in the last one year been signed into law. “These regulations have ambitious plans.”
Edet identifies the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, global politics, in-country insecurity challenges and asset divestment as underpinning factors that have continued to impact the energy supply shortage and altered the energy landscape in no small way.
“Globally, significant consumers of the hydrocarbon industry are undergoing a massive technological shift towards low or zero carbon energy usage like electric vehicles”, he contends. “there are other contenting and increasingly relevant issues such as: energy security; the dynamics of gas development, commercialization and monetization; development of Nigeria’s under explored gas rich cretaceous basins; and how Nigeria will adapt her policies and diversify her energy portfolio in the energy transition era so as to achieve sustainable growth for her economy”.
