Heritage Energy, Oando challenge NOCs on industry leadership

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Indigenous players in the petroleum industry have demanded the African national oil companies to assume leadership of conditioning the operating environment, incentivizing investments and raising the right set of infrastructure for optimal resource valorization.

The players and other professionals who laid propositions at the 2023 Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja responded to growth and sustainability templates laid by the key international and independent oil companies struggling with issues in the Nigerian operating environment.  

Representative of the big industry players had recommended that the Nigerian energy industry must adopt new technologies and business models in order to attract international capital for valorization of her huge hydrocarbon resources in the face of emerging global concerns about climate health.

Chairman of Chevron’s businesses in Nigeria, Mr Rick Kennedy, who doubles as the Chairman of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS) of the Organized Private Sector (OPS) told industry leaders and policy drivers at the Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja that adapting to new industry technology has become critical to attracting global investible capital.

Mr Kennedy who delivered a keynote presentation on the role of African national oil companies in leading activities and supporting local value chain stated that deployment of new technology has become critical for low carbon intensity, cost reduction, overall ESG compliance and access to funding.

In dissecting the issues around the topic of the panel discussion, the Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited, Mr Ado Oseragbaje, confirmed that Africa’s NOCs have roles in providing over 700 million young people on the continent with sustainable energy.

To fully harness the full potentials of Africa’s youth energy, Mr Oseragbaje called on the NOCs to lead industrialization of the continent by exploiting the full chain economics of the petroleum industry to lay basis for investments in ancillary business: fertilizer, bitumen, lubricants, petrochemicals and other non fuel products.

He made it clear that Africa has the full opportunity to industrialize on fossil fuels just like Europe, America and Asia have all done. He pointed out that it would be difficult for Africa to drive industrialization with fledgling renewable energy which, according to him, is still fledgling and unreliable to sustainably drive energy intensive industries.

He urged them to emphasize on peculiar national needs and opportunities; adding that local content offers immense opportunity for regional cooperation under a framework that accelerates regional development.

He called for collaboration among African NOCs tpo define their core focuses in petroleum industry, I made it clear that contracting and partnerships form veritable opportunities in shaping capital deployment decisions.

On the urgent need for investment inflow into the African petroleum plays, Mr Oseragbaje pointed at the need role of the NOCs in projecting comprehensive investment outlook for the industry as a way of developing industrial base for regional development.

In his contribution to the discourse, the President of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), Mr Elliot Ibie, listed critical roles of NOCs to include leading national participation in industry operations, building operational capabilities, optimization of commercial portfolios and enhancing the operating environment.

He also pointed at security and community issues in the Nigerian operating environment as challenges in realizing the full goals of national participation in the industry.

Chief Executive Officer of Contego Servo Limited, Mrs Nnoli Akpedeye, stressed the role of the African NOCs in driving cost efficiency, enhancing operational effectiveness and leading environmental standards in the industry.

She made it clear that industry operators must deploy new technology in achieving cost reduction, and adopt the right set of management programmes in their activities.

She pointed at the urgent need for agencies of government in Nigeria to rise to the role of managing the local operating environment by addressing insecurity, saying that brazen and unabated vandalism and theft threaten the livelihood of host communities and pose great disincentives to needed investments.

He proposed that industry engages skilled mediators to close the existing trust deficits among stakeholders, stressing that further engagement of host communities must be honest and fruitful.

In pointing out that the best way to address sabotage in the host communities is to address poverty, Mrs Akpedeye recommended that NOCs evolve programmes that help small and medium enterprises flourish in the Niger Delta and soak up large numbers of youths from the labour market.

Senior Economist at Oando Energy Resources (OER), Ms Olalade Olubi, advised the African NOCs to develop the right set of infrastructure to unlock the value of gas and make projects bankable through fiscal and commercial regulations.

Investments in gas, she said, should assist government power its activities and social services to the people as well as improve energy supplies to homes and businesses.