-By Kenny Folarin
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, has tasked members of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) on focusing more on gas development and support the government in its fight in curbing emission.
Speaking at the PETAN’s 2019 Clients’ Appreciation and Industry Achievement Awards in Lagos recently, the NNPC GMD, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Gas and Power, NNPC, Yusuf Usman, said that the use of gas for sustainable development has become paramount in policy formation in Africa.
“PETAN members should focus on gas development. We are a gas province as a country and there is need to develop gas because it is cheap, clean, environmentally friendly and affordable. We can help save the environment by substituting coal with gas and therefore reducing emission by half”, he said.
In his welcome address, the Chairman of PETAN, Mr Bank-Anthony Okoroafor, assured the GMD and all other stakeholders present that PETAN remains committed to ensure a sustainable environment for business and for the people.
“This, we have been pursuing since 1990. It was in 2010 that PETAN developed a-4Cs strategic plan, Capacity Building, Capitalisation, Collaboration and Consolidation, to identify and leverage capacity gaps from the Local Content Act, consolidate and expand end-to-end capacities across the value chain”, he added.
PETAN according to him will be 30 years in March 2020 and invited the audience to celebrate the milestone with PETAN in grand style.
“I will be inviting the industry to celebrate with us in working with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the National Assembly to increase retained earnings from five per cent to more than 27 per cent; to increase equipment ownership, drilling rigs, cementing, simulation, wellheads etc, to more than 90 per cent,” he stated.
