The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC has proposed collaboration amongst African countries in the area of Oil and Gas infrastructure to remain competitive on the global stage.
The Group Managing Director of the Corporation, Dr. Maikanti Baru, made the call at the just concluded second edition of the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, in Abuja.
He said cross-nation collaboration among oil producing countries in Africa is essential to convert the challenges in the oil and gas sector of individual countries to opportunities for the economic growth.
Dr Baru listed other areas of possible collaboration to include legal and regulatory framework, noting that synergy in these areas could enhance the abundant opportunities inherent in the new oil and gas discoveries across many countries in Africa.
According to the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, the huge opportunities in the African oil and gas industry will not be fully tapped if African countries fail to address critical issues of lack of
infrastructure, legal and regulatory impediments, and transparency issues.
Citing the proposed Nigeria-Morocco Gas Pipeline as an example of the type of infrastructural collaboration needed across, Dr. Baru disclosed that the project would traverse at least fifteen
West-African countries with intake and off-take points in the various countries before it links with the existing Maghreb-Europe Gas Pipeline in northern Morocco.
He described Nigeria International Petroleum Summit as a veritable platform to help galvanize Africa’s response to global oil and gas challenges, stressing that it is the melting pot to meet, discuss and share ideas on how to move, not just the Nigerian oil and gas industry, but also the economies of the various countries in the continent forward.
On his part, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, who represented President Muhammadu Buhari, said time has come for players in the oil and gas industry to think Africa, think collaboration and think the future.
Nigeria International Petroleum Summit 2019 summit attracted participants from members of African Petroleum Producers Organization, Gas Exporting Countries Forum and Oil Producers Trade Section of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, amongst others.
The theme for this year’s summit is, Shaping the Future through Efficiency and Innovation, with a sub-theme as: Africa on the Global Stage: International Collaboration, Opportunities and the Future.
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