By Bisi Bamishe
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), Mr. Mele Kyari has called for collaboration between the academia and the Oil & Gas Industry towards addressing the challenges of energy sufficiency and sustainability.
Kyari made this call while speaking as a Guest Lecturer during the 2024 Faculty Lecture titled, “Energy Security, Sustainability and Profitability in Nigeria: Advances, Challenges and Opportunities,” organized by the Faculty of Science of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Wednesday.
In his lecture, Kyari highlighted the important role academic communities, such as the prestigious OAU, play in safeguarding national energy security through research and collaboration with the industry.
While pointing out the challenges hindering energy security in Nigeria to include rapid population growth, pipeline vandalism, and crude oil theft, Kyari identified energy conservation, diversification, and efficiency measures as major avenues for enhancing energy security.
Addressing the projected rapid population growth, Kyari harped on the importance of finding solutions to ensure sustainable energy security for the benefit of current and future generations.
He underscored the intensified competition for vital resources and urbanization drive, which would lead to a doubling of Nigeria’s energy demand by 2050.
On the challenges posed by pipeline vandalism and crude oil theft, the GCEO observed that the issues have impacted NNPC Ltd.’s operations, stressing that the establishment of a command-and-control center has aided the detection and destruction of illegal refinery sites, removal of illegal connections, thereby addressing vandalism across operating corridors since 2021.
“The centre provides livestreaming of surveillance data to security forces, contributing to the detection and destruction of over 5,686 Illegal Refinery (IR) sites and the removal of 4,480 Illegal Connections (ICs) from 2021 to the present,” the GCEO added.
Acknowledging the severity of vandalism and oil theft, Kyari hinted at a strategic shift, focusing on increased products trucking and storage in underground tankages at NNPC filling stations nationwide.
He highlighted NNPC Ltd.‘s expanded retail assets, making it the largest single downstream company in sub-Saharan Africa after acquiring OVH retail stations and associated downstream infrastructure in 2021.
While underscoring NNPC Ltd.‘s transformation into a fully commercial limited liability energy company following the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021, Kyari said the removal of fuel subsidies has allowed the Company to play a more active commercial role, ensuring profitability and delivering greater value to Nigeria’s growing population.
