Oil Industry Won’t Disappear As Projected Globally- Sowunmi III

The aide to the Senate President & Consultant House Committee on Gas, National Assembly, Olabode Sowunmi III, has said that the campaign for transitions to renewables will not collapse the global oil industry despite projections from the world’s biggest economies.

The legal adviser said this during a monitored programme: ‘City Talk With Reuben Abati’ on Saturday.

Nigeria has  enacted its Petroleum Industry Act into law to overhaul the country’s oil and gas sector which accounts for over 90 per cent of foreign exchange proceeds from exports.

President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday inaugurated a committee headed by the Minister of State Petroleum, Timipre Sylva, to ensure implementation of the PIA in 12 months.

Less than 24 hours after Buhari signed the PIB on August 16, Sylva said that the country was in the final race to harness the resource in the industry as the push for renewables may end Nigeria’s crude oil era.

But the aide to Senate President Ahmed Lawal said that the future of oil cannot be wiped out except there are viable alternatives that would serve as raw material for all its byproducts.

Sowunmi said, “I will make some shocking statements here very much contrary to popular perception. I am not one of the people that is of the opinion that oil is going to disappear very soon and am speaking in terms of the technical fundamentals of the industry.

“It is possible that we will stop using petrol for cars.However, even if that were to happen, there are over ten thousand products that are directly dependent on crude oil.

“We are talking about cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, even the hair on the head of our women- wigs have a crude oil aspect to it, the roof in the buildings, the bitumen on the roads, you can name them on and on.

“Now, until those products have found another material that can replace it and is commercially competitive, oil continues to be relevant. That is still on the fundamental basis.

“Anybody that is talking about renewables, is going to talk about renewables and less damage to the environment, but we need to understand that there is actually a global politics.

“The second part of it is that coal is actually more polluting than oil and contrary to popular perception, coal is still very much alive in most of the developed nations. Whether it is Europe or America. In fact, as of today, 40 per cent of electricity comes from coal.

“So, why is oil disappearing when coal is still alive and well? The third part of it is that there are a number of internal combustion engines that cannot run on renewable energy as at today. We are talking about your trailers, your trucks as you know it. The batteries don’t have the capacity to drive them. So, if petrol should end, all of these machines will cease to work.

“I do not believe the fact that the oil industry is going to disappear contrary to popular perception about it. I do not believe that the fundamentals of economics and the fundamentals of the oil industry show that oil is going to disappear.”

There have been global debates for transition  away from oil in the U.S, France and the UK in favor of renewable energy.

In the UK, the government is planning to adopt a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) mandate to help drive the transition away from petrol and diesel vehicles.

Shell recently was under investor pressure to slash planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

The company is now planning to increase its spending on renewables and low carbon technologies to up to 25 per cent of its budget by 2025.