Collaboration Among African Countries Will Guarantee Equal Distribution Of Energy Resources— NNPCL’s Upstream Operations Chief, Eyesan

HOUSTON: The Executive Vice President, Upstream, Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan has called for “good collaboration” across the African region so as to guarantee even distribution of energy resources.

She said this during a session at the 2024 edition of CERAWeek by S&P Global holding in Houston, the United States.

The session with theme, “What are the choices for upstream strategies” was moderated by the Chief Upstream Strategist, Energy, S&P Global Commodity Insights, Bob Fryklund.

Panelists in the session included the President, Pathways Alliance, Kendall Dilling; and the Executive Vice President, Exploration and Production International, Equinor, Philippe Mathieu.

Speaking at the session, Eyesan said the need for collaboration among countries in Africa has become compelling since not all countries within the sub-region are endowed with equal with equal proportion of energy resources.

She said, “It’s important that there’s good collaboration across the sub- region for resource-rich countries versus resource poor countries.

“Not all countries in the sub- region are endowed with equal proportion. So, for us to ensure that we continue to subsist within the sub-region, we must be willing to work collaboratively and ensure that there is even distribution of energy resources we have across the sub-region.”

She also said that energy transition has evolved adding that for Sub-Saharan Africa, the narrative has been on how to address the energy poverty issue.

Speaking on the energy focus for Nigeria, she said that the NNPCL will continue to look at areas where it has competitive advantage to define the strategy.

According to her, Nigeria is a predominantly a gas-rich country which boast of over 200TCF of gas which can be leveraged for the country’s energy transition agenda.

Eyesan said, “So NNPC is keying into the government agenda of gas as a transition fuel and for us we want to ensure not only the domestic gas market but we also expand that to the region and internationally.

“For domestic gas, the plan is to deepen utilization domestically for industrialization and ensuring that the entire country feels the resource and optimize the use of the resources. NNPC in spearheading the domestic gas utilization is working assiduously to open up the pathway for infrastructural gas development and so we are looking at moving gas to the hinterland and from there we want to pipe out gas to the rest of Africa.

“So, the main focus is how do we move from predominantly oil player to gas player and not just for gas for the sake of gas but gas for power generation, and for industrialization.

“We want to also ensure that the sub region feels the impact of this resource that we have. We are also focusing on emission reduction and gas flaring as well and again tying into the gas story, we want to capture all gas flared and utilize them for domestic use instead of flaring this resource and increase our energy transition footprints.

“As a country, and as a company, we will ensure that we develop our gas resources.”

She told participants at the event that the NNPC has moved from the traditional oil gas to an energy company and will possibly diversify its portfolio beyond this.

She added, “We see technological advances every day and we believe that there is quite a lot out there and we see maturation of opportunities in the next 20 years.

“So, we see gas making that big leap for us to drive new oil and gas space but we see quite a lot more evolving in another 20 years beyond oil and gas.

“I totally agree with you, that decarbonisation will be top of the agenda, but also the social impact of oil and gas on the local community will also be a major change for the industry.

When asked if NNPCL has been able to deliver value to its shareholders, Eyesan said a lot has been achieved in that direction within the last few years.

She said delivering shareholder value is a function of the capital that could be attracted to the quantum of investments that would guarantee huge returns adding that the federal government has been making concrete efforts in making the environment attractive through tweeking of the fiscal environments with Executive Orders.

Eyesan added, “We want to attract capital to deliver shareholders value and today, the competition for capital is stiff and as a country, the government is doing a lot to ensure competitive environment.

“It is tweaking the fiscal environment to attract investments and recently the Nigerian government issued Executive Orders to enable fiscal adjustments and incentivize investments and once they can attract investments, then guarantee shareholder value is assured

“So, I think on the top of shareholder requirements, it is who is there to deliver? And I believe at NNPCL, we have demonstrated in the last couple of years, especially when you go through our long, 40-year history, you know that we are really making sure to assure that our shareholders are compensated for believing in us and the best in us.”