NSPE, estate developer partner on SDG goals

The Port Harcourt zone of the Nigerian Society of Petroleum Engineers (NSPE) has partnered with the real estate investor, the Mayor of Housing, to further sustainability efforts.

The sustainability deal is expected to make the two parties work together in boosting activities on cleaner energy.

The decision was reached at the recently concluded annual general meeting (AGM) of the NSPE in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where the Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, gave a speech as one of the sponsors.

Patrick Chimezie Ezenaji, a member of the NSPE, said the partnership would attempt to solve the energy crisis by trying to utilise renewable energy such as solar, wind, and hydro. He noted that the best place to try out the results would be in new housing estates, expressing delight to work with the Mayor of Housing on cleaner energy and sustainability.

Known in the body of petroleum engineers as a sustainability and cleaner energy enthusiast, Ezenaji explained that Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 17 is all about partnership and assured that the move would make great impacts in the industry.

Ezenaji said: “The partnership will harness young minds who are innovative thinkers to collaborate with the Mayor of Housing so that we can solve that housing problem in Africa and the world.

“My passion for empowering students brought me to this position. In this era of energy crisis, I am empowered to enlighten the students more on Sustainable Development Goal 7, which is all about harnessing and generating clean energy to help eradicate climate change.”

Abiye Iyalla Pepple, the chairman sworn in on the night in charge of Rivers State, Bayelsa State, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, the southeast, and all the universities in those states, is said to be a construction manager at AGIP.

He said that having worked under the shadow of Ngozi Okonkwo, the outgoing chairman, his major challenge as her successor would be to meet members’ yearnings.

He said,“It is a big society that offers opportunities for career growth. At every time, we help our members to be abreast of the latest techs and opportunities available, especially in the oil industry. They have to be technically and socially up to date.”

He said it’s the NSPE that scouts for training opportunities for members and ensures that the members are technically up to date. He spoke glowingly about the Mayor of Housing, adding: “We want to say big kudos to the Mayor of Housing, especially for the AGM. We believe that his tips and ideas about a place where people will live even after many years are novel. I think people should embrace it.”

Speaking at the session, the Mayor of Housing said he had mixed feelings attending the dinner because as a scientist, he felt engineers did not relax enough, but what he saw impressed him.

He said he was more impressed with cleaner energy as the focus of the NSPE annual general meeting.

He said: “Talking about estates and clean and green energy, Shell’s Residential Area has emotional value for me. It is clean and green, 60 years after it was built.”

In that guise, he said, the proposed Alesa prototype estate must be like Shell estate with a clean and green environment. He said there could be cleaner products in petroleum and prayed that new discoveries in the energy sector should be made by Nigerian engineers for the world. China noted that there was a divide between the elites that have technical professional knowledge and the deliverables in the housing sector that deliver technically savvy smart buildings.

So, he added, because his firm was building a sustainable city that not only has to do with cleaner and greener energy, it has to do with state-of-the-art thinking and smart technology. “We have to just come and marry the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), whose mantra is cleaner energy.”

Nigeria can lead the cleaner energy drive:
The real estate success strategist said some people believe that the story of a sustainable estate with cleaner energy and a greener environment was something for the Diaspora. “We have come to let them know that it has come home. And, they should watch out for what we are doing; the Alesa Highland Sustainable City.

“I do not tell people to believe me when we are starting, I tell them to believe me when we are done. This is because we are going to do something that will not only make them want to partner with us but they would want to export us as one of those that are bringing the dream home.”

On his takeaways from what he saw at the NSPE Congress, China mentioned three, the first being that the NSPE has embraced cleaner energy even in the present instead of waiting for it to be a matter for the future. He said a lot of people think Africa and Nigeria are backward in terms of cleaner energy. “Seeing that this body in Nigeria has embraced it is a big epiphany for me.”