OpeOluwani Akintayo
Abuja — In response to the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ministry of Petroleum Resources has moved the 2021 Nigerian International Petroleum Summit, NIPS which usually holds around March/April to June.
Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva in a statement, announced that the yearly conference will now take place in Abuja from June 6thto 10th, 2021.
“We have had to re-consider the dates in light of the current global pandemic”, Sylva said in a special video broadcast on some television stations and which was also shared the Petroleum Ministry’s official social media handles.
The theme of the summit, “From crisis to opportunities: New approaches to the future of hydrocarbons” aims at charting the way forward for Africa’s oil and gas industry in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era.
The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources said that “while it has been a challenging year for the oil and gas industry due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the crisis also provides us with the opportunity to re-define our industry for transformative moments.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has indeed engulfed the global economy especially the oil and gas industry. The global level travel bans along with grounding of international flights led to heavy reduction in consumption of aviation fuel across the globe. Partial and complete lockdown strategy which was used to deal with the pandemic further curtailed industrial and commercial activities thereby reducing consumption of fuel further and pushing the oil prices down to $23.36 at a point.
“Let us all, therefore, come together under the platform of NIPS 2021 in our quest to return to the attractive industry performance that lifted the entire economy over the years,” Sylva added.
James Shindi, Managing Director, Brevity Anderson, event producers of NIPS said that “economiesare going through challenging times and one of the sectors that has witnessed significant challenges is the oil sector, globally and in Africa.”
Shindi posited that the evolving economic situation and challenges could provide an opportunity for African oil producing countries to explore how economies can be diversified away from reliance on oil; maximize the local value-added of the oil; increase cross-border trade and investment between African countries and engender creativity through expanding deployment of renewables in the power sector.
The scope of NIPS 2021 has been expanded to incorporate the latest industry trends and topical issues that are at the forefront of every energy leader’s agenda. It has also become the platform for industry players for the public and private sectors to interact, transact and develop agenda for government and support Nigeria’s role in galvanising other global players in addressing challenges in the industry.
With the full backing of the Federal Government of Nigeria, NIPS has over the past three editions, witnessed the highest level of attendance by top decision makers, industry leaders and all stakeholders from both the public and private sectors.
