Huawei Technologies Company Nigeria Limited, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and various stakeholders in the oil and gas sector are pushing for measures to further advance the fortunes of Nigeria’s oil industry.
Stakeholders brainstormed on how to improve the fortunes of the oil/gas industry at 2021 Nigeria International Petroleum Summit which commenced in Abuja on Monday. Aside from Huawei and NNPC, other stakeholders who participated at different sessions of the summit include delegates from PWC, IDSL, Agip, Shell Petroleum, ExxonMobil, Chevron, Total, among others.
Speaking during the session on ‘Data to Barrel’, managing director, Huawei Technologies, Michael Zhuang, said his firm was dedicated to promoting digital transformation and reducing the digital gap in all industries.
He noted that in Nigeria, Huawei had partnered both international and local oil companies in the upstream, midstream and downstream arms to promote oil and gas digital transformation, adding that the firm remained committed to continuously provide support and innovation.
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“With this integrated oilfield IoT solution by Huawei, it is now possible to visualise and monitor real-time production and reduce the vandalism on well sites.”
Zhuang added, “In the midstream, we have delivered AKK pipeline camp with Huawei IVS monitoring and campus network/office solution to improve camp safety monitoring and office experience.
“In the downstream, we have also delivered our monitoring solution for NNPC retail to enable more safety and secure management at its headquarter office and mega petrol stations,” said Zhuang.
On enterprise information, the Huawei boss said his firm had delivered a green modular data centre solution for IDSL to reduce the data centre O&M cost and improve efficiency.
He noted that the Huawei fusion cube solution in Department of Petroleum Resources for regional branches helped to reduce the IT O&M cost and enhance unified monitoring and management.
Zhuang observed that the oil industry had experienced some major challenges, the most recent being the COVID-19 pandemic and the oil price crisis. He said there were also conversations about the long term of carbon neutrality and the rise of renewable energy.
The Huawei helmsman stated that although Nigeria had remained a leading oil and gas producer in Africa, it was important to factor how the country could stay competitive despite short-term and long-term challenges.
“We should begin to plan on how we can convert crisis situations to opportunities to achieve transformation and maintain the lead for the next five to 10 years,” he stated.
He added, “Today, we have set up this forum with some of the most brilliant minds who are oil and gas industry top players and partners across the NNPC, PWC, IDSL, and SPE.
“They will share more views on the best practice to achieve a better future for the oil and gas industry in Nigeria.”
Speaking in one of the sessions, the group managing director, NNPC, Mele Kyari, also pointed out that the industry was going through concerns ranging from energy transition to COVID-19 induced challenges.
He, however, noted that domestically, the government was working to address the challenges facing the industry in Nigeria.
The NNPC boss said, “We are also aware that cost is everything in the future. The crisis has thrown up the fact that only the best of producers will survive and therefore cost control become a major issue in the industry.
“Funding also is a major issue in the industry today for two reasons. One, there is paucity of resources across the globe and secondly, there is overall reluctance by investing companies and banks to put money into fossil fuels related businesses.”
Kyari added, “But obviously these are issues we have to live with, however, the best of the businesses that will survive are the ones that try to transit into climate friendly businesses.”
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, told participants at the summit that the Federal Government’s target to produce four million barrels of crude oil per day and grow the country’s reserves to 40 billion barrels were on course.
He stated that last week’s marginal oilfield licensing round would definitely support in pushing Nigeria to realise this ambitious crude oil production target.
Sylva said, “This year’s NIPS comes on the eve of the award of new marginal field licences after several failed attempts over the past 20 years.
“Getting these new set of marginal fields off the ground is definitely a stepping stone towards achieving the country’s aspiration of meeting the target of 4mbpd oil production and 40 billion of proven reserves.
“I have no doubt that the country is now on the right path to achieve that dream.”
Similarly, the Secretary-General, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, Sanusi Barkindo, made participants realise that member nations of OPEC lost about $1tn revenues due to the plunge in oil prices during a two-year period.
He also stated that oil sector investments during the period (2015 and 2016) crashed by about $300bn, as the outbreak of COVID-19 in 2020 came with its additional challenges, but stated that OPEC and its allies were tackling the concerns frontally.
