Petroleum engineers insist PIB must stimulate growth in oil/gas industry
APetroleum Industry Bill ( PIB) short of stimulating growth in the oil and gas industry would not be acceptable, the Society of Petroleum Engineers ( SPE), Nigeria’s chapter, has said.
The petroleum engineers welcomed the PIB which is currently receiving attention at the National Assembly, saying its passage will help in reforming the petroleum industry, but stressed that its provisions must be such that will lift the industry.
Olatunji Akinwunmi, president SPE, while speaking on the forthcoming Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum, themed “Operational excellence and portfolio optimisation, the way forward for the oil and gas industry in post-covID-19,” said the society made its submissions during the recent public hearing organised by the National Assembly on the PIB.
“Our concern is that we should have a bill that enhances and stimulates growth and boost activities in the oil and gas industry”.
Asked what would be the future of fossil fuel in the face of the global transition towards renewables, Akinwunmi responded that the oil and gas industry is still relevant notwithstanding the gradual transition from fossil fuel to renewables.
“The fact is that today, the huge contributor to energy per demand is fossil fuel, oil and gas. We are in the process of transition; gas is much cleaner than oil as long as we are able to control any emission that could come from it. So, Nigeria has a huge amount of gas resources and if the country moves towards the development of its gas resource, this is still fossil fuel.
Talking about oil, we have the overall demand and that is expected to grow post-coVID-19. Even if renewables grow, there is still more space that would be filled in the long term by oil which is today energy or the fuel of choice for maritime transportation, aviation, and also feedstocks for petrochemicals.”
Akinwunmi explained that what the oil and gas industry is doing is to work on the efficiency of its operations to limit emission such that we can all work towards the same goal for the overall efficiency of the industry. “As long as we have policies in place that would enhance or add value to the upstream work, there is still hope.”