By Bisola Adeyemo
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that the federal government was leaving no stone unturned to ensure that Nigeria move to clean renewable energy but that the step must be gradual.
Osinbajo, who was represented by the minister of state for petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, stated this on Wednesday at the opening of the 2021 Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference in Abuja, adding that the country had no option other than to move with the global trend being a signatory to international protocols on cleaner energy.
He explained that government had already directed stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to focus on natural gas resources as a transition fuel that would function as a bridge between the dominant fossil fuels and the cleaner energy. Leadership had reported.
“Natural gas has the intrinsic abilities to meet the increasing global requirements for cleaner primary energy use, while at the same time enabling much needed domestic industrialisation for rapid economic growth in very few endowed countries such as Nigeria.
“We are not unmindful of the peculiar challenges confronting the gains from oil and gas operations in Nigeria.
“From infrastructural deficiency and insecurity to high cost of operations, to mention just a few, the government is working conscientiously to tackle all without lagging behind on our path to meeting the cleaner energy global demands.
“In spite of the current global challenges in the industry, government has been supporting the aggressive implementation of the nationwide gas infrastructure blueprint.
“This informed our recent declaration of year 2021-2030 as “the Decade of Gas” after the successful kickoff with the National Gas Expansion Programme in 2020,” Osinbajo said.
The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, said investment in the oil and gas industry had dwindled by 30 per cent due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Kyari said energy transition was not just about moving from fossil fuel to renewable energy but that it was creating the right balance.