Secretary General of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, OPEC, Haitham Al-Ghaias, says oil industry investments of over seventeen trillion Dollars are required by twenty-fifty to meet the world’s rising energy demands.
The OPEC Scribe stated this in an international keynote address to the formal opening of the twenty-fourth Nigeria Oil and Gas Energy Week presently ongoing in Abuja.
This year’s Conference theme is ‘Accelerating Global Energy Progress with Investments, Partnership and Innovation’.
The OPEC Secretary General appreciated President Bola Tinubu and commended Nigeria’s resolute commitment to the Organisation and the crucial role played by the country in supporting its common objectives and championing sustainable market stability.
Haitham Al Ghais said that with Africa’s six member countries in OPEC, there was a need for continuedinvestments, partnerships and innovation as the global population is expected to rise from the present 8 billion to 10 billion by 2050, mostly in the developing world, with implications for energy security.
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He said that to meet the growing energy demands, investments must increase significantly to US$17.4 trillion by 2050.
In a Ministerial Address, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Oil, Senator Heineken Lokpobiri stressed that Nigeria need to build on ongoing reforms and the seventeen billion investment injected in 2024 by the Federal government after a decade of no investment in the oil and gas industry, giving a marching order to key actors to increase crude production from the current 1.7 million barrels per day to over two million as projected in the 2025 budget.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Gas, Ekperikpe Ekpo, noted that with a proven gas reserve of over 200 million cubic feet, Nigeria is a leading producer of the commodity, stating that it was important to develop the resource for the socio-economic benefit of citizens.
The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Bashir Ojulari, said that though much progress had been recorded in the last few months with improved security of the pipeline, there was a need for more investments in the hydrocarbon industry for increased crude oil production.
Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Producers Group of Nigeria (IPPG), the Association of indigenous Exploration and Production companies in the country, estatablished in 2015 with the primary goal to maximise the contribution of the domestic oil and gas industry to the nation’s socio-economic development, Abdulrazaq Isa, earlier presented the Industry Keynote Address.
