We Need Home-Grown Solution To Tackle Oil & Gas Industry Challenges -Lokpobiri

The Minister of State Petroleum (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri has tasked stakeholders in the Nigerian oil and gas industry to develop home-grown solutions to the low oil output, and crude oil theft among other issues confronting the industry.

Lokpobiri said this on Monday at the 2023 3rd Biennial International Conference on Hydrocarbon Science & Technology (ICHST).

The Minister said Nigeria has been a big player in the oil and gas industry both in Africa and globally, adding that for Nigeria to sustain its place as a major player in the oil and gas sector, industrial players need to update their knowledge and keep up with trends.

Lokpobiri said, “My expectation is for us to come up with our home-grown solution to address our problem in the petroleum industry. You will agree with me that in Nigeria today, we have so many problems developing the oil industry beginning with pipeline vandalization, oil theft, low productivity and we can’t even meet our OPEC quota.

“As a ministry, our expectation is that all the agencies in the ministry, beginning with PTI to PTDF to NNPCL, to NUPRC to NMDPRA and all parastatals will be able to collaborate going forward to be able to evolve relevant technology that we need to be able to address our local oil production problems; our local gas production problems. Nobody will come here and find solutions to our own problem.”

He charged industry experts to develop solutions to tackle oil theft, and low crude production among others, and not to “copy other people’s work and ideas that are not relevant to solving our problems in the country.”

The Minister of State Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpo, while delivering his address said it is important for Nigeria to focus on tackling the issues of energy transition, sustainability and energy security.

Ekpo believes that Nigeria was inadequately prepared and did not fully utilise the opportunity to cover the shortfalls created by the increase in demand for alternative sources of gas supply as a result of the Russia/Ukraine war.

He said Nigeria is famous for its gas reserves with a proven reserve of 208trn cubic feet of gas.

But he decried local issues in the industry which include inadequate infrastructure, the unclear regulatory environment for gas, sabotage of pipelines and the inability to optimise value for our abundant gas reserves.

He said, “It is well known that our NLNG plant currently operates below capacity due to gas supply which is ironical given our proven gas reserves. In fact, the ongoing NLNG Train 7 project should increase the NLNG capacity by approximately 35 per cent which further expands our opportunities for gas producers.”

The Minister said that from his investigation, infrastructural and pricing issues has remained the major challenge for gas.

Ekpo said, “The Ministry under my watch has identified these areas and is working with the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Oil, to ensure the security of supply to the NLNG plants, increasing gas penetration and utilisation by local users for power, transportation, industrial and domestic purposes. “