Abuja — Mr Victor Bandele, Deputy Managing Director Deep water District, TotalEnergies has advocated internal alliance by all operators in the oil and gas sector to harness new opportunities brought about by COVID-19 Panademic
Bandele made this known at the ongoing 4th Nigeria International Petroleum Summit, in Abuja, on Wednesday.
He spoke on the Topic COVID-19 : New oil and gas opportunities in Sub Saharan Africa, Lessons for Nigeria International Oil Companies (IOCs) and National oil Companies (NOCs)
” A lot of us see negative impact of COVID -19 pandemic but the situation has offered new perspective for businesses. A lot of opportunities opened with COVID-19.
“We need to collaborate, in onshore there are lots that the oil companies can do together to reduce cost and achieve better results.
“The way oil blocs are located, there are infrastructure close that could be shared among stakeholders. Collaboration entails that we talk to one another to see what we can get from each other,” he said.
According to him, on the offshore, the best method to join forces will be to tie small fields to infrastructure especially as new marginal fields have been awarded.
He said that it was unfortunate that it remained difficult to work together in the continent in the sector.
He said that if gas would be developed, there must be strong collaboration even at the continental level.
“We in TotalEnergies have a lot of infrastructure that is operating below capacity in the offshore but alliance by operators can make them more useful, ” he said
He urged companies to improve and focus in drive to develop gas and reduce carbon emission.
” In TotalEnergies, we give ourselves target and we strive to achieve and that has helped us to re. ain competitive.
In his remarks, Mr Bayo Ojulari, Managing Director, Shell Nigeria, said that it was unfortunate that stakeholders are not committed to collaboration
According to him, there is the need to find a way to leverage on the opportunity provided by the summit to build strong force in the industry.
He said that all companies try to show off how well they are doing saying” the truth is that we must do well together as a mark of responsibility”
He said that there was need for the industry players to make sure that stakeholders work together as the petroleum industry Bill (PIB) was about to be passed.
“We all need to come together and think on how best to implement the PIB when passes to achieve a better result for growth and development in sector,” he added.