FG defers to Covid-19 pandemic to shift Nigerian International Petroleum Summit 2021

Chinazor Megbolu |

The Federal Government has at the weekend announced new dates for Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS).

The Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Dr. Timipre Sylva made the disclosure, stating that the new dates for the NIPS, which is the official oil and gas meeting of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, will now take place in Abuja from June 6th to 10th, 2021.

The Minister hinted they have had to re-consider the dates in light of the current global pandemic.

Sylva, through a special video broadcast which was also shared on the Ministry’s official social media handles, said the theme of the summit; “From crisis to opportunities: New approaches to the future of hydrocarbons”, is geared towards charting the way forward for Africa’s oil and gas sector in the post-Covid-19 pandemic era.

“While it has been a challenging year for the oil and gas industry due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the crisis also provides us with the opportunity to re-define our industry for transformative moments.

“The Covid-19 pandemic has indeed engulfed the global economy especially the oil and gas industry. The global level travel bans along with grounding of international flights led to heavy reduction in consumption of aviation fuel across the globe.

“Partial and complete lockdown strategy which was used to deal with the pandemic further curtailed industrial and commercial activities thereby reducing consumption of fuel further and pushing the oil prices down to $23.36 at a point.

“Let us all, therefore, come together under the platform of NIPS 2021 in our quest to return to the attractive industry performance that lifted the entire economy over the years,” Sylva said.

Meanwhile, the Managing Director, Brevity Anderson, Mr. James Shindi, said that economies are going through tough times and one of the sectors that has turbulence is the oil sector, globally and in Africa as well.

He maintained that the evolving economic situation and challenges could provide an opportunity for African oil producing countries to explore how economies can be diversified away from reliance on oil; maximise the local value-added of the oil; increase cross-border trade and investment between African nations and engender creativity through expanding deployment of renewables in the power sector.

Shindi, however, noted that the scope of NIPS 2021 has been expanded to accommodate the latest industry trends and topical issues that are at the forefront of every energy leader’s agenda, stressing that it has also become the platform for industry players for the public and private sectors to interact, transact and develop agenda for government and support the country’s role in galvanising other global players in addressing challenges in the industry.