The Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) has expressed confidence that the future of oil and gas exploration is bright amid the global energy transition.
The president-elect, NAPE, Mrs. Patricia Ochogbu, said petroleum exploration is not all about oil, but also about gas even as the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva declared the next 10 years as a decade of gas.
Ochogbu stated this on the sidelines of its special technical session in honour of the Executive Director Exploration, First E&P, Dr. Emmanuel Enu in Lagos.
According to her, the Federal Government must urgently create the necessary infrastructure to support the oil and gas industry.
In her words, “I will like to say that the prospect for exploration looks very good because, in Nigeria, we do not only have oil, but we also have gas and we are hopeful that going by the declaration by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, the prospect for the oil and gas industry is bright.
“What we need is the infrastructure to support the industry and I believe when business people see that there is an opportunity, there would be funding. I see that there is a continued future for the oil and gas industry.
“The industry is big enough for the International Oil Companies (IOCs) and indigenous companies. I still see that in Nigeria, there is a future for petroleum products.”
She said with some of IOCs leaving the country, opportunities for indigenous companies to take advantage of the oil and gas sector abound.
“We are Nigerians and we are very ingenious. What is next is for government to support with funding because that is the advantage the IOCs have over marginal fields,” she said.
She strongly advocated the need for Energy Bank set up by the government to make funds available for both local and foreign investors at friendly interest rates.
“The government should also make data available by strengthening the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR’s) data repository,” she said.
She added that NAPE is also planning its hybrid conference tagged “Petroleum exploration and production in a new world. What next after the global crisis” scheduled to hold on November 14th-18th, 2021.
“You must agree with me that the pandemic has impacted the oil and gas industry. We are planning about 300 people and for virtual, we have unlimited capacity. We are expecting people from all over the world,” she added.
In his remarks, Enu identified the need to bridge the gap and avoid initial shock when academia crosses to the oil and gas sector.
He also recommended the upliftment of selected universities to be specialised in geology by raising their standards and equipping these universities with state-of-the-art facilities.
The Publicity Secretary, NAPE, Tunbosun Afolayan, stated that the association is seeking to build a conscious approach to the evolution of geosciences
She noted that the conference will be an important avenue to bring all the discourse to the table.
“We know that oil is part of the transition and we also know that it would contribute a lot more than we can ever imagine in the transition and we are ready to make a case for it,” she said
