By Emmanuella Anokam
Mrs Nkechi Obi, the Group Managing Director of Techno Oil Ltd., an indigenous oil and gas company, has emphasised the need to have significant investments and infrastructure to achieve global energy mix and sustainable energy.
Obi made the call at the business leaders and regulatory dialogue, a session at the ongoing Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2023) in Abuja.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the session has its theme as “Africa at the Heart of the Global Energy Mix: What’s Ahead in Nigeria.”
NAN also reports that biomass (charcoal), petroleum reserves, natural gas, peat, hydroelectricity, solar and wind are major energy resources in Nigeria and the country remains a top producer of crude oil and natural gas in Africa.
Obi who received a lifetime oil and gas achievement award at the ongoing summit said at the session that gas would play a big role in the global energy mix and that Nigeria had enough of it to drive the industry.
She explained that there were about eight mitigants to achieving the global energy mix but that the provision of infrastructure, reduction in biomass and fossil fuel were key to achieving success, especially in the downstream sector.
According to the GMD, Nigeria needs an enabling environment to drive investments to position itself strategically in view of global trend to transit to cleaner energy.
She said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA 2021) was a big relief in pursuit of a cleaner energy but regretted that the Act was not being implemented effectively.
She urged the Federal Government to fast track the process of its implementation, especially the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority which had plans to drive the PIA implementation process.
Obi noted that the country had abundant gas reserves but that the challenges of affordability, accessibility and availability were still militating against the progress of the industry.
The Techno Oil GMD said the challenges in the oil and gas sector had led to the company making some investments and improving its infrastructure aimed at benefitting the entire gas value chain.
She said in the quest for cleaner energy and to tackle challenges in the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) adoption, it established a fully automated LPG ultra-modern gas cylinder manufacturing plant with state of the art laboratory and modern testing equipment.
“The terminal we have is about 10,000 metric tonnes capacity and the cylinder manufacturing plant enhances usage of quality cylinders.
“The goal is to help households and encourage domestic switch from heavy biomass use and deepen LPG use which is safer, cleaner, healthier and cheaper to use.
“Today techno cylinders are of standard and the best,” she said.
The summit which started on April 16 and would end on April 20, has its theme as “Global Perspectives for a Sustainable Energy Future.” (NAN)
