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Oando Energy Resources has advocated the need for Nigeria to engage in aggressive extraction of billions of barrels of crude oil for its socio-economic development and industrialisation Amid energy transition pressures.
The company also added that Nigeria must at the same time use its hundreds of trillion cubic feet (tcf) of proven and yet to be proven natural gas to drive sustainable development.
The Executive Director of Oando Plc and Chief Operating Officer of Oando Energy Resources, Dr. Ainojie Irune, made the call during a panel session at the Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week 2024 in Abuja.
Speaking on the topic, “Navigating a Sustainable Future for Independent Producers”, Irune warned African countries against a hasty shift towards the 30-year Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 vision.
He said: “We have always felt it was too soon for us as Africans with huge amounts of energy resources, but we exist in deep poverty.
“We can’t transition ourselves to further poverty. We were asked to march on to a 30-year Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 vision aimed at achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
“We committed ourselves to the vision of turning all of our energy resources to renewable energy, unfortunately, we have no business latching on to that dream,” he said.
Irune, who is also the President and Chief Executive Officer of Oando Clean Energy Limited emphasized the relevance of a balanced energy mix, noting that oil and gas would still play significant roles in the future.
According to him, “At Oando, we no longer feel pressured by the energy transition push; instead, we see an acceleration in our crude oil extraction.
“Therefore, African countries need to extract every molecule of crude oil from beneath the earth’s surface and use natural gas to champion the continent towards sustainable development.”
Continuing, Irune underscored the importance of ecosystem development, local capacity building, and knowledge transfer.
“We believe in contributing to ecosystem development, learning, and local capacity building."
