The Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Sarki Auwalu, has advised that for a secured future, Africa must rise to the challenge of harnessing its over 125 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and 625 trillion cubic feet of natural gas for the development of the continent.
Auwalu spoke at the opening ceremony of the 5th Edition of the sub-Saharan African International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, organised by the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria.
Speaking at the three days virtual conference tagged, ‘Post COVID-19: From Global Crises to Global Opportunities,’ he urged the continent to rise to the challenge of harnessing its oil and gas reserves for the development of the continent.
His words: “Africa must not be cowed to abandon its quest to grow its economies by the ‘doomsday’ narrative of ‘end of oil’ era and jettison the development of its resources.
“Africa’s resources must be used to fuel Africa’s development; the same way other continents utilised dirtier fossil fuels to fuel their economic transformation.”
According to Auwalu, “To achieve this, we must take our destinies in our hands and join hands across all spectrum – technical, economic, legal, commercial, operational, financial, and political – to drive regional energy security and economic sustainability.”
He added that Nigeria recognises the reality of energy transition and is committed to accelerated development of its petroleum resources through the emplacement of appropriate legal framework to support upstream asset acquisition, development, production and exports.
“However, we are putting increased emphasis on midstream investments and gas-focused infrastructural development for domestic value addition via the refinery revolution and Decade-of-Gas Initiatives.
“The Decade-of-Gas Initiative will leverage Nigeria’s 203 TCF of natural gas reserves for domestic gas supply (Gas-to-Power), alternative fuels (Gas-to-People) and Gas-based Industrialisation (Gas-to-Derivatives) elements of the gas-fired industrial economy agenda within this decade,” he said.
