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Experts task govt on energy industrial parks

By Joseph Okoghenun
03 February 2015   |   11:00 pm
EXPERTS in the oil and gas industry have asked the Federal Government to come out with creative strategies to solve   the challenges   of power generation, transmission and distribution currently facing the country.   To this end, they urged government to create industrial power generation parks, where gas supply and power evaluation grids can easily…

EXPERTS in the oil and gas industry have asked the Federal Government to come out with creative strategies to solve   the challenges   of power generation, transmission and distribution currently facing the country. 

 To this end, they urged government to create industrial power generation parks, where gas supply and power evaluation grids can easily be made available.

Strategic and Portfolio Adviser to Seplat Petroleum Development Company Limited, Dr Mason Oghenejobo, a petroleum engineer, who made the suggestion recently at Niara Inspire-Africa Conference held in Lagos, stated that the current “splintered strategy” being operated by government and the private sector would not take Nigeria to Eldorado in an attempt to solving the challenge of power. 

The Niara Inspire-Africa Conference was aimed at developing leadership transformation of the African economy.  

 Oghenejobo, who had worked with Shell Petroleum Development Company for about 32years in various capacities, added that the current strategy where government and others build power plants in various divergent locations   only to lament the inadequacy of gas supply, would only attract few “big boys”, who can only make one-off time investment, because of the huge financial burden such strategy requires. 

  “One way to solve this problem is for government and / or private organisations to create industrial power generation parks, where gas supply and power evaluation grids can easily be made available,” the energy expert said. “Such industrial power generation parks should have the requisite physical infrastructure and commercial arrangements-adequate gas price-guaranteed payments for power off take-that can allow several small-scale players to contribute to solving our power problem.We learn from finite element theory that complex problems can be solved through sub-division into small-interconnected parts. For example, if the technical systems within the industrial power generation parks allow for the installation of small, say 1 megawatt, power plants, I believe there are over 100,000 Nigerians who can provide power plants of 1 megawatt. On the   other hand, only few Nigerians can finance and run power plants with capacities of 100 megawatts. These few companies are insufficient to solve  our problem.”

Chairman of Lagasa Group, Remi Okunlola, Nigeria’s foremost indigenous offshore services group, stated that several opportunities exist in the oil and gas sector in Nigeria, but regretted that many Nigerians are not able to tap into these opportunities because   of   some challenges. He listed some   of the   challenges   in the industry to include over- regulation, dearth of human capital, lack  of bankable finance among others. 

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