OpeOluwani Akintayo
26 February 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos – Nigeria has been advised to increase its investment in renewable energy as an alternative to a dwindling oil.
Chairman, Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigeria Council, Mr. Chikezie Nwosu, made the call in a statement heralding the SPE Annual Oloibiri Lecture series.
The theme of this year’s lecture is “The Nigerian Oil Industry in a World of Changing Energy Supply: Are we prepared?”.
According to Nwosu, it has become clear that the world was rapidly moving towards an age of cleaner sources of energy due to growth in energy demand, adding that for fossil fuels, this would mean a greater reliance on gas and less reliance on oil and especially, coal.
In addition, he said, hydroelectric and gas-powered cars will replace diesel engines and, with time, gasoline engines.
‘‘Add to this the growing investments in renewable sources of energy such as solar and wind, and it becomes evident that Nigeria must rethink (or rejig) its energy policy to solidify on the gains in the oil and gas industry (the 7 Big Wins), and leverage on these learnings to prepare for an energy mix that will become less reliant on the more polluting fossil fuels”.
“The pressure from the next generation of leaders will drive technological advances that will result in less reliance on environmentally damaging energy, and we (Nigeria) must be ready now,’’ he warned.
The SPE Chairman noted that there are many opinions on how long reliance on fossil fuels will last-many of these opinions are predicated on the huge remaining resources of oil and gas.
He added that one must note the often quoted statement that “the stone age did not end because mankind ran out of stones, and the oil age will end long before we run out of oil”.
Nwosu maintained that fate has played a major role in ensuring that Nigeria can stay ahead with abundant energy from the sun, wind energy in many northern parts of the country and an estimated 190 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of gas and prospective resources that could be as high as 600Tcf.
