07 December 2012, Sweetcrude, Port Harcourt – Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Andrew Yakubu, has challenged stakeholders in the energy sector to encourage resource diversification in the petroleum industry.
Delivering a lecture, Thursday at the ninth induction/anniversary ceremony of Institute of Petroleum Studies, IPS, at the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Yakubu said that the nation was yet to explore the full value of its oil and gas resources.
Yakubu who spoke through the Coordinator, Planning/Strategy, NNPC, Dr. Timothy Okon, said that resource diversification would strengthen the nation’s economy, pointing out the concerted efforts made to translate the gas flared in the country into economic value.
He assured that the NNPC would continue to promote steps to diversify the oil and gas resources in the country.
The NNPC boss, in his paper, “Prospect for resource diversification in the petroleum industry,” said there were still several untapped opportunities in the oil and gas industry.
He further challenged stakeholders in the sector to think beyond production of primary sources of energy, stressing that resource diversification would create more jobs in the country.
Yakubu further appealed to stakeholders to see resource diversification as a critical element in the survival of the nation’s economy. According to him, national content was mainly about raising involvement in the oil and gas industry.
In his welcome address, Vice Chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, Prof Joseph Ajienka, expressed gratitude to NNPC/Total E&P joint venture and IFP school of Paris for partnering with the university to set up the Institute of Petroleum Studies, IPS.
Ajienka said the centre had trained world class petroleum engineers for the oil and gas industry within the last nine years.
On his part, Managing Director, Total upstream companies in Nigeria, Mr Guy Maurice, said his firm was happy with the move by the leadership of the centre to expand the curriculum of the place to accommodate new programmes aimed at providing manpower for integrated solutions in the oil and gas industry.
He assured that the NNPC would continue to promote steps to diversify the oil and gas resources in the country.