NNPC tasks PETAN on gas development, fight against emission

The Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, has tasked members of the Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) on focusing more on gas development and support the government in its fight in curbing emission.

Speaking at the PETAN’s 2019 Clients’ Appreciation and Industry Achievement Awards in Lagos recently, the NNPC GMD, who was represented by the Chief Operating Officer (COO), Gas and Power, NNPC, Yusuf Usman, said that the use of gas for sustainable development has become paramount in policy formation in Africa.

“PETAN members should focus on gas development. We are a gas province as a country and there is need to develop gas because it is cheap, clean, environmentally friendly and affordable. We can help save the environment by substituting coal with gas and therefore reducing emission by half”, he said.

In his welcome address, the Chairman of PETAN, Mr Bank-Anthony Okoroafor, assured the GMD and all other stakeholders present that PETAN remains committed to ensure a sustainable environment for business and for the people.

“PETAN remains committed to partnering with all stakeholders to create an enabling environment for investment to thrive. PETAN was formed to utilise the technical know-how that abounds in the oil and gas industry by Nigerians as a springboard for economic change and technological advancement of our nation”, he said.

“This we have been pursuing since 1990. It was in 2010 that PETAN developed a-4Cs strategic plan, Capacity Building, Capitalisation, Collaboration and Consolidation, to identify and leverage capacity gaps from the Local Content Act, consolidate and expand end-to-end capacities across the value chain”, he added.

PETAN according to him will be 30 years in March 2020 and invited the audience to celebrate the milestone with PETAN in grand style.

“I will be inviting the industry to celebrate with us in working with the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) and the National Assembly to increase retained earnings from five per cent to more than 27 per cent; to increase equipment ownership, drilling rigs, cementing, simulation, wellheads etc, to more than 90 per cent,” he stated.

He, however, said PETAN will work to increase (indigenous) vessel ownership from less than 10 per cent to more than 40 per cent; fabrication tonnage from nothing to about 60, 000 metric tonnes; iron processing, pipe-coating, pipe-laying, operation and maintenance, FPSO integration, engineering design, etc.

The PETAN chief further stated that the theme: “Oilfield of the Future: operational Excellence”, is to re-emphasise the long-standing PETAN philosophy for the growth of the industry, which is professional excellence.

“That was why we initiated a PETAN’s Seal of Quality to sanitize our operations and certify our people in particular and the industry in general. The process has fully commenced and a number of our members have been certified in conjunction with Bureau Veritas.

“In the last four years, my exco team have been working on getting a befitting secretariat, conferences and meeting venue for the association and for the use of the industry and stakeholders. As you are aware, there is no functioning facility that can be used for the industry events in Port Harcourt, the oil city of Nigeria where many of us began our career.

“Graciously, the governor of Rivers State Nyesom Wike has provided us a location just by the Port Harcourt International Airport. We will be conducting the groundbreaking ceremony for the project first quarter of 2020.

We urge all our partners to partner with PETAN to deliver the best oil and gas museum for the country,” he said.

PETAN is made up of Nigerian indigenous oilfield service companies and was founded to utilize the technical know-how acquired in the oil and gas industry by Nigerians as a springboard for economic and technological advancement.

PETAN companies employ over 20,000 engineers and other technical personnel with a direct employment of about 80,000 people. PETAN companies also offer 250 distinct technical services to the Nigerian oil industry and many of these companies now parade similar services in Mauritania, Ghana, Cameroun, Equatorial Guinea, Congo, Gabon, Chad, Angola, South Africa, the Middle East, South East Asia and the United States.