Within 12 weeks in office as the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has set short and long-term targets to tackle the challenges in the oil and gas sector. His recent elevation to the position of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources will no doubt provide the platform for him to realise the set targets. Ejiofor Alike reports.
The appointment of Dr. Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu as both the Group Managing Director of NNPC and the Minister of State for Petroleum has presented a golden opportunity for him to realise his vision for the Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
With no other minister to wield undue political interference in the running of the affairs of the NNPC, Kachikwu has a golden opportunity to implement the agenda of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in promoting transparency and restoring professionalism and confidence of investors in the management of the country’s hydrocarbon resources.
But with the dwindling funding and investments in the oil and gas industry, increasing loss of confidence by foreign investors and with the crude oil price at an all-time low, as well as the reputational challenges facing the NNPC, Kachikwu came in at a time Nigeria’s oil and gas industry was facing unprecedented challenges.
After his appointment as the Group Managing Director of NNPC in August, Kachikwu had hit the ground running with a raft of reforms to reposition the sector, demonstrating that all hope was not lost despite the frightening challenges.
Despite the current glut in the global crude oil market, the President of Chevron Africa and Latin America Exploration and Production, Mr. Ali Moshiri had recently painted a rosy picture of a robust future in the global energy dynamics and Kachikwu is determined to ensure that Nigeria’s oil and gas sector is repositioned to take advantage of these future opportunities.
Moshiri had predicted a growth in future demand of hydrocarbon and how this could incentivise investment even during this period of low price regime.
With an additional population of over 1.5 billion by 2030, Moshiri said the world would demand for more power and energy, stressing that between 30 million and 40 million barrels per day incremental production would be needed by 2035 to meet the growth in demand.
To replace depleting reserves, Moshiri told oil and gas industry stakeholders at the 2015 conference of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) in Lagos that 250 billion hydrocarbon resources would have to be discovered by 2035 for the world to meet the demand growth.
