Panellists at the roundtable discussion on Deepening Collaboration in the African Oil and Gas Industry - Challenges and Opportunities. L-R: Executive Secretary, African Petroleum Producers Association, H.E. Mahaman Gaya; Secretary-general, International Energy Forum, Dr. Sun Xiansheng; Dr.Abderrezak Benyoucef of the OPEC Secretariat; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Commelin V; moderator of the session, Mr Dolarpo Oni, and US Ambassador to Nigeria, William Stuart Symington.

The maiden edition of the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit ended on a positive note after the deliberation with critical stakeholders. Chineme Okafor reports

The first edition of Nigeria’s new oil and gas summit ended in Abuja recently after about five days of discussion by key stakeholders in the international oil and gas business. The summit had had over 1,000 participants, 92 exhibitors, and 32 countries in attendance. At the end, there was optimism regarding the federal government’s promise to start a Nigerian-inspired oil and gas summit to revive the hydrocarbon industry of African countries.

Nigeria is known for its willingness to always hand-hold its African partners in almost all aspects of the continent’s struggles. So the country practically started what could become a major determinant of the future of oil and gas in Africa.

Initiative

Plans for the NIPS began since last year, when the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, disclosed in May in Houston Texas that Nigeria would initiate and host an inclusive conference and exhibition in the frame of the annual Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) to, among other objectives, revive the interests in opportunities in Africa’s oil and gas industry. A month after Kachikwu’s statement, Vice President Yemi Osinbanjo unveiled the logo and plans for NIPS at a meeting of African petroleum ministers under the auspices of African Petroleum Producers Organisation, which Nigeria hosted in Abuja, with a further disclosure that it would happen in February 2018.

After about eight months of planning for the NIPS, major players in the global oil and gas industry then converged on Abuja, where they engaged in diverse deliberations between February 19 and 23. They discussed the challenges and opportunities in Nigeria and Africa’s oil industry.

At the summit, which was declared open by President Muhammadu Buhari, represented by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Nigeria told the world how it intended to take its hydrocarbon industry to the next level. The country also made efforts in some sessions of the summit to try to help revive Africa’s oil industry, which it said had been challenged lately by several factors, and could become its new hunting field.

As Africa’s foremost oil producer, Nigeria said it took the initiative to champion the renaissance of Africa’s oil industry through the NIPS. She added that the summit would specifically help its oil and gas industry build its capacities and competitiveness in a global oil market that is increasingly demanding more in terms of efficiency and value addition.

 7 Big Wins

There were sessions with Kachikwu, on the 7 Big Wins, in which he had an open discussion on how the oil and gas sector would respond dynamically to reposition Nigeria’s national economy, ramp up production, reduce costs, foster efficiency and also boost the non-oil contribution to export earnings and government revenue using measures in the 7 Big Wins policy instrument.

The seven big wins are improving security and ensuring environmental safety in the oil producing areas of the country in order to increase national crude oil production, attract investment and infrastructural development to the difficult terrain of the region; a shift in focus from oil to gas; review of old and moribund policies and laws; reduction of importation of petroleum products by 60 per cent and becoming a net exporter of petroleum products and value-added petrochemicals by 2019; creation of a business environment and investment drive that will accelerate income for Nigeria in the upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of the oil industry; drive for efficiency and transparency in the operation of the oil and gas industry; and stakeholder management and international co-ordination.

There were also executive roundtable sessions on the growth outlook and how the oil industry can stay competitive after a global downturn. In these sessions, questions, such as what lessons were learnt and how companies were re-strategising to balance their books following the global downturn were asked and answered.

In addition, this session which assessed which strategies were problematic and which had allowed businesses to respond dynamically, survive and emerge strongly from the global price downturn had speakers like Mr. Nicolas Terraz, Managing Director of Total Exploration and Production Nigeria Ltd. (TEPNG); Mr. Paul McGrath, Chairman of Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited; Mr. Jeffrey Ewing, Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria Limited; and Mr. Bayo Ojulari, who is the Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Co. Ltd (SNEPCo) in attendance.

Other sessions on how current and future policy shifts could potentially impact the global petroleum markets, how the African market could leverage regional advantages to grow its long-term offshore production and processing potentials, as well as steps needed to deliver tangible socio-economic returns to the Niger Delta region were undertaken at the NIPS.

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