Stakeholders warn of deforestation impact, carbon footprint
• As energy firm moves to plant five million threes
STAKEHOLDERS, yesterday, in Abuja, raised concerns about the growing level of deforestation triggered by activities in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.
This is coming as Seplat Energy said over five million trees would be planted in some oil producing and Northern states.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, Board Chairman of Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited ( NNPC), Senator Margery Chuba Okadigbo and Chairman of Seplat, ABC Orjiako were among stakeholders who insisted that unless concerted efforts are made, achieving the 2030 target to end deforestation may remain elusive.
Speaking as Seplat unveiled the tree planting initiative, Sylva said the Federal Government is creating corridors and pathways for oil and gas operators in the industry to achieve net zero.
According to him, the Petroleum Industry Act remained an enabler for gas business, adding that the Act will enable a lot of gas projects.
Sylva said there was a need for operators to take advantage of the opportunities provided by the PIA to actually deepen the gas business in Nigeria.
“We are actually creating a roadmap to achieve these objectives. We are also creating corridors to deepen gas business. The AKK pipeline is a corridor that we are reaching across Nigeria from the southern part to the north. We are also creating another corridor from the W est African gas pipeline all the way to Morocco.
“These are all opportunities that the government is putting in place that should be taken into account by operators,” he said.
Okadigbo said fossil fuel contribution to climate change remained worrisome, adding that it is critical for the oil and gas industry to address climate change and sustainability.
“In Nigeria we have a unique situation. We have 200 million people, which is the seventh l argest population in the world and we ha ve oil and reserves of over 37 billion barrels of oil and 208 trillion cubic feet of gas, we must therefore deplo y our resources to actualize the development of Nigeria while addressing climate change challenges,“she said.