Yemisi Izuora
The federal government is pushing India to make robust investments in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.
India is becoming Nigeria’s trading ally especially in the energy sector, and the country recently overtook Japan to become the second largest oil consumer in Asia and the third largest in the world.
To further cement the existing bilateral agreement, Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources, attended a ministerial session of Petrotech 2016, the 12th International conference on oil and gas organised by India Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas with the flagship state-owned Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC).
At the forum Kachikwu, hailed India for becoming the fastest growing economy in the world and felt it could make robust investment in his country’s oil and gas sector.
Nigeria, like most of Africa, has vast oil and gas reserves.
He said,“India can provide robust investment in upstream and downstream, infrastructure support, technical expertise and resource management techniques to Nigeria so that Nigeria and the rest of Africa, can be at par with global energy giants,”.
The ministerial session saw Ministers from Afganistan, Brazil, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Syria, Mauritius and Qatar, among others, making presentations on the oil and gas scenario in the context of depressed oil prices and the OPEC decision to effect production cutbacks in crude.
OPEC President and Qatar’s Energy Minister, Dr. Mohammed Saleh Abdullah Al-Sada, emphasised that OPEC was regulating and balancing the global oil market through the recently announced production cutbacks (a decision taken at Algiers first and confirmed at Vienna).
Dr. Saleh, who is also the chairman of Rasgas, felt gas was the immediate future of energy due to its reliability, affordability and its low ecological impact. He also went on to describe how India is one of the key beneficiary of low oil prices.
The first Ministerial session at Petrotech-2016 was presided over by Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Dharmendra Pradhan and moderated by Dr. Daniel Yergin, Vice-Chairman, BG and IHS Markit.
Dr. Yergin is also the founder chairman of the Cambridge Energy Research Foundation.
Due to the Government’s standout policies like ‘Make in India’, the world’s fastest growing economy can help develop not only world class oil and gas infrastructure in developing countries, but also help ignite the push towards cleaner, accessible and affordable fuels, ” Dr. Yergin said.
Earlier, welcoming the participating Ministers, Mr. Pradhan highlighted the unique strengths and opportunities of the hydrocarbons sector in India.
The Ministerial session focused on how India is poised to usher in a new era of growth in the oil and gas economy of the world with its advantages of technological advancement, favourable policies, robust economic growth and industry expertise.
The ministers and representatives took turns to shed light on the oil and gas industry scenario in their respective nations, the policies that favour an investment in their countries , and how India can play an integral role in the proliferation of successful energy partnerships.