Osagie Okunbor, the chairman of Shell Companies in Nigeria, revealed on Tuesday that before the facility could be restarted after being shut down for a year,The International Oil Company (IOC) found and removed 460 illegal connections on its Trans Niger Pipeline (TNT).
The TNP is run by Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria. While other IOCs critized the serious effects of oil theft on their operations, it uses the pipeline to transport crude from oil fields in Rivers and some areas of Bayelsa to the Bonny Crude Oil Export Terminal.
Osagie disclosed that the shell TNP was shut down for a full year as a result of the extensive crude oil theft on the pipeline, a development that also severely harmed the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited’s supply of gas during that time.
This occurred at the same time that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo announced the Federal Government’s intention to produce six billion liters of biofuel annually in addition to 5,300 megawatts of solar-powered electricity.
During various sessions of the ongoing 6th Nigeria International Energy Summit in Abuja, Osinbajo, Osagie, and several other executives of foreign and domestic oil and gas companies spoke.
Osagie said that the security of the oil infrastructure should be given priority in response to a question about what the incoming administration should focus on in the oil sector.
He emphasized that the document on the Decade of Gas, for example, had measures that would deepen the use of gas, but that its implementation remained a problem.
He claimed that Nigeria was not short of frameworks and written documents on how to deal with the myriad challenges in the oil sector.
He went on to say, “The inability to operate a pipeline, which accounts for the 60% capacity, is what keeps me up at night regarding my onshore work for Shell. That’s probably about as much gas as we can supply right now”.
“And the TNP, one of our main gas infrastructures, was shut down for a year while we eliminated 460 unauthorized connections on that line. Just now, that line was reopened. We are currently having trouble catching up with our first program”, Osagie said.
According to the SPDC chairman, this loss is frequently discussed in terms of how it is affecting Nigeria’s oil production quota to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, but he emphasized that the situation is also having disastrous effects on the supply of gas to the NLNG.
The security of the oil and gas infrastructure must therefore be the top priority for the incoming administration if you ask me. We will be in serious trouble if you don’t fix it, Osagie warned.
He commented on the industry’s lack of execution willpower by saying, “We know exactly what is needed, but it is that power of execution, just that courage to get things done without obstructing facts, that’s really what is the ban of our challenges.”
“Essentially, this is how I believe we should all approach the incoming administration in terms of our industry,” he added. The problems, in my opinion, are fairly well understood; all we need is the willpower to take action.
Dr. Philip Mshelbila, the managing director of Nigeria LNG Limited, also made note of the fact that theft had left 40% of the capacity of well-known gas companies around the world idle.
He added that the oil industry had continued to face difficulties due to its lack of ability to carry out the policies and recommendations contained in the various documents and laws governing the industry.
Osinbajo earlier stated that the Federal Government was working to increase the nation’s power generation and supply with solar energy during his address to the summit.
He emphasized that the continent could do much more to develop its own agenda for a green future, noting that Nigeria and other African nations were among the lowest emitters of carbon but had some of the richest natural resources.
In addition to stating that “if you are going to do anything, in terms of the green energy future, you should start from the low emission base,” Osibanjo also noted that developed countries were the highest emitters of greenhouse gases.
And this low emission base is in Africa, he continued. Natural resources are available to us for this. So let’s concentrate on our advantages today. And I believe we have already begun.
He further emphasized, according to our energy transition plan, we will increase the use of solar cells by about 5.3 gigawatts (5,300 MW) annually until 2060. That is the strategy, and we believe that it can be carried out.
Additionally, more than six billion liters of biofuels are produced each year, and at least two million Nigerian households switch to cleaner cooking fuels like LPG and electricity each year. These goals are attainable.
