23 March 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu, has urged oil companies to embrace new technologies and adopt innovation as part of measures to survive the difficult operating times occasioned by the current oil price fall.
Kachikwu, who was speaking at the closing ceremony of the 6th African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition, CAPE VI, in Abuja, said only companies that are willing to do these would survive the difficult operating times.
“I think anybody who wants to survive in this climate today would need to put on the thinking cap. It is not business as usual, but people are going to survive. The nice thing about adversity is that you get to make huge successes also,” the minister said.
He added: “Companies that are ready to embrace new technologies and strategies and new ways of doing things are going to survive.
“It is not going to be for too long. Nigeria, for example, has put its strategies around getting the oil companies back to full time work and we are still looking at alternative funding sources”.
“New ideas of how to survive and how to multiply the income available to you is key to survive. I think that Nigerian companies are very resilient, they will survive,” he asserted.
The minister further stated that oil-producing countries as well as oil and gas companies have come to the sudden realisation that they not only need to cut cost, but also ensure the efficient management of proceeds from crude oil production and sale.
Kachikwu said: “There is a sudden realisation that not only do we need to come together to cut our costs to see how to survive in this unhealthy petroleum climate, but also that countries will need to do a whole lot more in terms of how they utilise the proceeds of production going forward.”