THE Federal Government, on Monday, sought for collaboration among African continent in the areas of joint pipelines, research and building of refineries.
President Muhammadu Buhari, made this known in Abuja in his message to the ongoing Nigeria International Petroleum Summit (NIPS) 2019, with the theme: Shaping the Future through Efficiency and Innovation.
The president, whose message was delivered by the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr Ibe Kachikwu, said the summit was indeed strategically positioned Africa for prosperity.
He stressed that oil and gas has the potential to significantly change the economies of the continent, saying “we have seen it in other climes. The Middle East is a good example. The wealth the sector generate can change the fortune of Africa. We are presently looking at expanding the role of a particular financing body we are going to be calling the African Energy Investment Corporation (AEIC).
“The whole idea is to mobilise between $1 billion and $2 billion of resources to fund all the essentials necessary for us to properly collaborate. Today, most African countries are silos, everybody does their own thing; you build your own refineries, plants, gas turbines etc”.
“If we could just cross the Rubicon and be able to extend hands of infrastructural relationship across Africa; build joint pipeline, plants and refineries; begin to protect the African market, we would have taken a huge step, not only in the development of Africa, but to the stabilisation of independent countries.
“We have finished that meeting and signed on to resolutions that endorsed all the changes that we have suggested. We are now going to move on the implementation stages.
“Unless you get your policies right, unless you get your market place right; unless you get your collaborative mechanisms right and get your infrastructure right, you would face a huge amount of challenge in the competition for the very scarce resources and scarce capital.” He stated.
President Buhari said over 90 per cent of the oil major workforce are Nigerians, adding that this means that some of the best skill sets were here in the country.\
“One of the things I found going on in NNPC in 2015, was that every detail of capability that you need to run a global company starts from NNPC. They are very trained, very well exposed. We have issues in terms of policies, but in terms of skill sets, we are solid.” He added.
Earlier in his remarks, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Group Managing Director (GMD), Dr Maikanti Baru also stressed the need for collaboration, especially in the area of infrastructure.
He said Nigeria and Morocco were collaborating to construct a gas pipeline that would traverse at least 15 West African countries and connect the existing Europe gas pipeline.
Dr Baru said the feasibility study has already been concluded and the pre-FID greenfield optimisation study was currently ongoing.
According to him, this pipeline will help in the industrialisation of these countries. It will also meet the needs of consumers for heating and other uses. Gas discoveries have been recorded offshore Senegal, Mauritania, Mozambique and are in various stages of development.
“Nigeria is also targeting to take FID on Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) Train 7 this year. So, African countries need to collaborate and trade among each other not only in terms of oil and gas but also in other key sectors so that the multiplier effect is seen across our various economies.” He advised.
Also speaking, the Deputy Managing Director (DMD), Total E&P, Mr. Ahmadu-Kida Musa said efficiency and innovation are key enablers if African countries have to work safer, reduce costs, make faster and better decisions, and generally increase productivity.
He said it is, therefore, necessary that the continent share their best practices and experiences in this gathering to enable them adapt and quickly take actions that would sustain them in the far and immediate future.
Mr. Musa stated that Total’s projects in Nigeria have been industry benchmarks with regard to efficiency and innovation, saying the one on the lips of everyone at the moment is Egina.
At plateau. Egina will add 200. 000 barrels of oil per day to Nigeria’s current production and this represents about 10% of Nigeria’s current production. With Egina, Total will be operating about 23% of the national production and we are proud to be significant contributors in securing Nigeria’s oil and gas future. Egina set unprecedented records of local content and capacity building.
“For us, Egina stands as a great testament to Total’s commitment to Nigeria and our determination to support and advance local content development. 77% of man-hours worked on the project was done locally with 60,000 tons of equipment fabricated in Nigeria by local contractors,” he stated.
SOURCE: tribune