The Petroleum Technology Association of Nigeria (PETAN) has stated that if Nigeria retains about 70 per cent of activities within the oil and gas value chain, the country stands a better chance of emerging as one of the top 20 economies in the world.

The Chairman, PETAN, Wole Ogunsanya, disclosed this during a courtesy visit by representatives of NAECled by its Chairman, Ugo Amadi in Lagos.

He pointed out that the country is under producing to the tune of at least 500,000 barrels per day, which he said was equivalent to $15b in excess of the national budget per year.

He said such losses would not have been if there was full in-country retention of values and beneficiation across all the value chains of the industry.

He explained: “Essentially, if Nigerian organisations are involved in taking that oil to a refinery owned by Nigerians and refining it. If we have petrochemicals refining the gas and the product, we are taking that gas, processing it in power plants, we run pipelines to connect all those power plants, this country would be in the top 20 economies in the world.

“And we believe very strongly that there is no better prescription for Nigeria’s economic solution than that.

“So, what we have is, as we see today, the production is down by at least 500,000 barrels. That 500,000 barrels equates to $15b. If you do the mathematics at today’s rate, you are talking of hundreds of trillions of naira, more than what the national budget per year is.”

In order to retain those values in-country, at every stage of the oil and gas process, he said a lot of gaps needed to be filled through government policy initiatives and collaboration with industry stakeholders.

Reiterating PETAN’s commitment to support the retention of those values, he acknowledged the presidency’s high interest in increasing production.

He pointed out that the presidency had given the directives and had formulated a lot of gazettes, stating that PETAN aligned with those initiatives.

Ogunsanya further said: “Our intention is to support this government, to support this country to increase production of oil and gas. I presented this vision to the whole house of PETAN exactly a week ago and the vision is very clear. PETAN wants to support Nigeria through innovative means to increase the production of oil and gas in this country.

“That is the mandate that the president has given. PETAN is going to come with very innovative ideas on how this is going to be achieved at a low cost approach that is being used in other countries. If you go to Indonesia where some of us have relationships, this is what they are doing. They are looking inwards on how to maximise returns from the resources that they have,” he said.

Owing to the technical know-how of the members and the unique position of the association, the PETAN boss said they are working with the government to create value for the country.

He said the group’s commitment and response to the president’s mandate of increasing production was for them to be prepared to deploy all their assets at various locations in the Niger Delta to actualise that mandate.

He acknowledged the challenges facing the industry to include funding, logistics among others.

Ogunsanya also assured NAEC of its commitment to consolidating the long-standing relationship existing between the two bodies.