Second female President in NAPE history, Patricia Ochogbu, opens up on tough lessons the oil industry learnt from COVID-19 pandemic
Highest body of Petroleum explorationists in Sub-Saharan Africa, Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE), has advocated the establishment of Energy Bank to cater for the unique nature of oil and gas exploration investments.
Platforms Africa reports that President of NAPE, Patricia Ochogbu, stated at a press conference in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
She maintained that the energy sector deserved a bank like the Bank of Industry in order to fund the petroleum industry properly because “exploration activities take a number of years and their funding is not short term which is synonymous with commercial banks.”
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Revealing that NAPE has lined up issues around this and others for its 2021 conference, Ochogbu who is the second female President of NAPE, added that the association offers trainings for its members since many of them work from home as the current situation in the industry demands.
She maintained that COVID-19 has taught the industry a lot of lessons. “You must agree with me that Covid-19 has impacted the oil industry significantly leading to low oil prices, people working from home including glut in the market among others.”
The NAPE president allayed the fear that energy transition will pose a challenge to the demand for petroleum products.
“Change is constant and it is normal to progress from one system to another. Therefore, there is need to plan for change as other countries are considering renewables. But they are not emphasising on environmental and other hidden costs. Electric vehicle for instance is still static and has not gotten wider acceptance across the globe. At present, Nigeria power infrastructure is experiencing challenges.
“With over 200 million population, how can goods and services be conveyed across the country if electric cars are used with its attendant challenges? There is a future for petroleum products in Nigeria.”
On the aspect of gas, she spoke on auto gas policy where the government has plans to convert vehicles to gas.
“It is a good devepment for the environment as it will resorts to low carbon emission if gas is being used.
“Even the average Nigerian does not need much conviction if the economics are right. If I find that to drive my car to Ajah from Victoria Island and I purchase fuel for N10,000 but if I use gas, I will only spend N3,000 I don’t need a preacher to tell me to do a capital investment and save N7,000. What the government needs to do is to make the economy attractive to Nigeria.”
Oil industry, accorsing to her, has a success story in Nigeria with indigenous oil companies such as First E&P, Seplat among others giving space for operations with opportunities for indigenous participation in Nigeria.
The NAPE President was of the view that the prospect for Nigeria is enormous because the country has huge reserve of gas and the government is planning towards energy transition.
NAPE, Nigeria’s renowned oil and gas professional association, she added, will be holding its 39th Annual International Conference and Exhibition (AICE) in November.
“The conference will be an hybrid and physical event with exhibition. This is because of Lagos State government Covid-19 restrictions on physical event that paritcipants must not be more than 50% capacity.
“Therefore, some of the association’s members will attend the physical conference while others will participate via virtual.”
She continued; “As typical of NAPE, it will feature Pre-conference Workshop and Management Session that will be dealing with cogent and topical issues. It will be an avenue for significant discourse with regards to the oil and gas sector.
Various committees are working hard looking at the scenarios to ensure a befitting conference that will add value for members and the general public. Theme for the 39th AICE is “Petroleum Exploration in a New World: What next after the Global Crisis.”
