Ghana counsels Nigeria to transit from  energy production to consumption

Chinazor Megbolu    |The Ghana National Petroleum Corporation (GNPC) has counselled Nigeria to transit from energy production to consumption in a bid to maximise  developmental potentials.

The corporation in an issued statement by the Chairman, GNPC, Prof  Wunmi Iledare noted the advice is for Nigeria’s oil and  gas developmental potentials that will benefit the citizenry.

He explained that even though efforts at replacing oil with alternative energy sources have been on the rise, the country still has the chance to stir economic growth in the few decades remaining before the replacement of fossil fuel as main source of global energy.

Iledare urged the nation’s National Assembly to create Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that could transform Nigeria to an energy consumer by way of encouraging the maximisation of the value chain.

“Nigeria must move away from the thinking that emphasizes energy production and move towards the economically impactful paradigm of energy consumption.

“It is energy consumption that will ensure the country grows its economy through value chain maximisation,” he said.

He pointed out Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was a mere desert in the early 1980s, adding the country has wasted years through emphasis on oil rent and revenue sharing.

Iledare further buttressed that the PIB must be deliberate in its national development purpose.

According to him; “I have not seen an economy that develops that is not a huge consumer of energy”.

He, however, advised all the labour unions in the oil and gas sector to begin to think beyond their immediate personal gains, but instead work towards the maximisation of the opportunities that could foster collective prosperity of the country.

Iledare also maintained that the challenges of restiveness and poor development of the oil region of the Niger Delta can be solved through the PIB if the government will sincerely work towards opening up investment opportunities in the oil and gas value chain close to the sources.

“The solution to the crises and development challenges in the Niger Delta is to work towards the emergence of energy-intensive industries close to the energy sources. This will trigger rapid industrial and commercial development and also engender other industrial clusters in other parts of the country,” Ilebare said.