Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd.), Mr. Mele Kyari, has called on collaboration between the academia and the Oil & Gas Industry to address the challenges of energy sufficiency and sustainability.
Kyari made the disclosure while speaking as a Guest Lecturer during the 2024 Faculty Lecture titled, “Energy Security, Sustainability and Profitability in Nigeria: Advances, Challenges and Opportunities,” organized by the Faculty of Science of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Osun State, on Wednesday.
According to a statement signed by NNPC Ltd’s Chief Corporate Communications Officer, Olufemi Soneye, the GCEO highlighted the important role academic communities, such as the prestigious OAU, play in safeguarding national energy security through research and collaboration with the industry in his lecture.
Kyari identified energy conservation, diversification, and efficiency measures as major avenues for enhancing energy security.
Addressing the projected rapid population growth, Kyari harped on the importance of finding solutions to ensure sustainable energy security for the benefit of current and future generations.
He underscored the intensified competition for vital resources and the urbanization drive, which would lead to a doubling of Nigeria’s energy demand by 2050.
“The centre provides live streaming of surveillance data to security forces, contributing to the detection and destruction of over 5,686 Illegal Refinery (IR) sites and the removal of 4,480 Illegal Connections (ICs) from 2021 to the present,” the GCEO added.
Kyari highlighted NNPC Ltd.’s expanded retail assets, making it the largest single downstream company in sub-Saharan Africa after acquiring OVH retail stations and associated downstream infrastructure in 2021.
While underscoring NNPC Ltd.’s transformation into a fully commercial limited liability energy company following the passage of the Petroleum Industry Act in 2021, Kyari said the removal of fuel subsidies has allowed the Company to play a more active commercial role, ensuring profitability and delivering greater value to Nigeria’s growing population.
