The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri has offered reasons why President Bola Tinubu is prioritizing investments in oil and gas, saying the sector is one of the surest way out of the nation’s economic situation.
According to Lokpobiri, the surest and quickest route to solving the present economic challenges of our nation is the oil and gas sector, and President is doing all he can to improve investment portfolio of the sector, especially as the nation have a robust regulatory framework and abundant natural resources.
The Minister, who made this known in the United States during the African Energy Forum at #OTC2024 with the theme: “The future of Energy Transformation in Africa: Clean Energy and Business Sustainability”, pointed out that the Federal Government, under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will continue to prioritize initiatives that lead to more investment in our oil and gas sector with a commitment which highlights our steadfast dedication to nurturing sustainable development and growth in Nigeria’s energy sphere.
” hinted on this, once more, while declaring open the Nigeria Exhibition Pavilion at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, and I commended PETAN for their leading role over the years in ensuring Nigeria’s participation at OTC, which undoubtedly contributes to the technological advancement of our energy sector.”
On the need for African continent to join the rest of the world to quick end to emissions, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri argued that as Africans, the continent have to solve its problems by themselves “and by this, I mean the transformation of our natural resources into financial resources, thereby solving the energy poverty of the continent and then finance energy transition.”
“With Africa contributing barely 3% of global carbon emission from fossil fuel exploration, we should not be forced to transition at the same pace with others.”
“My stance is for Africa to explore her fossil fuel in more responsible and greener manner as we aim to generate the financial capacity to fund energy transition. It is on this note that I called on African nations to support APPO’s proposed African Energy Bank for the purpose of providing financial support to indigenous investors in the sector.”
“It is therefore, my proposal for a technology to take care of the emission while supporting Africa’s objective of guaranteeing energy security for prosperity, before venturing into energy transition.”
