By Adaobi Rhema Oguejiofor
The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Malam Mele Kyari, has said that Nigeria is well positioned to lead the African continent in a just and gradual energy transition, leveraging NNPC Limited as a fully commercialized enterprise.
He disclosed this during his keynote address at the Society of Petroleum Engineers’ Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum (SPE OLEF 2023), which was held at the Petroleum Technology Development Funds (PTDF) Towers in Abuja.
At the event with the theme “Effective Gas Resources Utilization: A Lever for Enhancing Energy Security and Achieving Net-Zero Emission Goals in Nigeria”, Kyari said that Nigeria, like other African countries, is endowed with an increasingly young population, and needs a stronger economy to continue to generate beneficial employment in order to lift citizens from a state of poverty to one of prosperity.
According to him, this will without doubt continue to push the country’s energy demand faster than what renewable energy technologies are likely to offer in the nearest future.
Kyari further stated that NNPCL is leveraging the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) in order to attract more investments in the Nigerian petroleum industry, so as to continue to guarantee access to energy, while also aligning with the global energy transition.
He maintained that Nigeria’s huge natural gas reserve provides the nation with ready access to low-carbon energy to address energy poverty as Nigeria is already an enormous gas country.