Financial Energy Review
The Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd, (NNPC) Mele Kyari has said that Nigeria is committed to achieving carbon neutrality using her abundant natural gas resources as a low carbon alternative that will help improve access to energy to power the Nigerian economy.
Kyari pointed out that with some of the initiatives being implemented by the Corporation, the nation’s energy transition will be more impactful using Nigeria’s available natural resources.
Kyari said this in his industry keynote address which was delivered on Wednesday at the Nigerian Day-Energy Forum held at the side-line of the 23rd World Petroleum Congress in Houston, United States.
Kyari who was represented at the event by the Group Executive Director, Upstream, Engr. Adokiye Tombomieye, spoke on the theme, “The new realities for the world oil and gas industry.”
The event is coming at a time when the world is confronted with multiple challenges such as resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic and the fast-spreading Omicron variant; vaccine hesitancy in some Western capitals and vaccine insufficiencies in some developing countries; climate change on the front burner and rising geopolitical tensions These challenges are more manifested in some parts of the world than in others.
But their collective impacts when superimposed on the drive for accelerated energy transition is enough to paint the new reality that confronts the global oil and gas industry.
However, he maintained that inspite of all these challenges Nigeria will in no distant time become a net exporter of petroleum products.
The GMD said while the COVID-19 pandemic has remained a hurtful experience that shocked the global economy and the oil industry, negative financial position and poor liquidity experienced during the heat of the pandemic has made funding of both existing and new projects impossible as companies cut their spending to survive.
However, he said the success of vaccine development has renewed world confidence to reopen the economy once again.
This reopening, he noted, has increased oil demand with prices surging above pre-pandemic levels after crashing to a single digit due to over supply and demand destruction in 2020.
With the opening of major economies and the rebound of oil demand, Kyari said prices have escalated to three-year high due to disproportionate supply.
In the midst of these growing uncertainties, he told participants at the event that building mutually beneficial partnerships has remained the best choice that stakeholders can make to keep their respective visions alive.
Building on this convergence, the NNPC GMD said Nigeria as a key player in global oil industry has, with the enactment of the Petroleum Industry Act 2021, taken major step to address challenges associated with fiscal, security and cost competitiveness.
