Mohammed Shosanya

African countries must focus on their strategic national interests in order to sustain development and regional survival as global energy races towards energy transition, Ado Oseragbaje, Chief Executive Officer of Heritage Energy Operational Services Limited (HEOSL),has said.

Ado,who spoke at the recent Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja Nigeria noted that the key role of National Oil Corporations is to help drive national development in their various countries.

He maintained that every African nation must prioritize energy security above other factors in the energy transition process.

According to him,energy transition should be consistent with the strategic interest of each country and region.

This he said was accentuated by how quickly key European countries opened the coal mines in the wake of the threats to energy supplies following the Russian-Ukraine war.

“Each country is in a different phase of the energy transition, and each country must therefore prioritize to reflect strategic national and regional interests”, he added.

Mohammed Shosanya

Director, Governance and Sustainability of Sahara Energy,Ejiro Gray,has said that deploying seamless backward integration in the energy sector will foster growth and sustainability enabled by improved efficiencies, innovation, upgrade in local expertise and participation, and the collaboration of host communities in operations across the value chain.

She spoke at the 6th Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja,where she maintained that building local capacity for extraction and processing of natural resources facilitates job creation and economic growth.

She also joined other panelists that discussed “Local Content Investment and Sustainable Energy Future” at the summit,a statement said

She said:“Backward integration helps to reduce the cost of raw materials, providing a more stable and predictable supply chain that presents opportunities for growth and self-sufficiency in the oil and gas sector. This is arguably one of the best ways of developing and enhancing local expertise and sustainability in the sector”

The sector needs to work on developing policies that prioritize the development of local capacity and offer incentives for backward integration.

She also noted that such policies should have input from all stakeholders, with a transparent and sustainable implementation framework.

“We need to be more intentional about building internal capacity for backward integration in the extraction and processing of our natural resources to strengthen our local supply chain networks. The more we neglect this, the more we will continue to see an exodus of our youth population for greener pastures,” she stated.

She implored stakeholders, operators, and regulators in the sector to “close ranks” in the pursuit of safeguarding the future of the sector amid growing strides towards energy transition.

She added: “Outsourcing value addition and capacity building opportunities is tantamount to outsourcing development potential. We should also focus on building viable collaboration among stakeholders, including the government, local and foreign investors, and local communities to galvanise shared aspirations and programs. Investment in vocational training and education programs aimed at equipping host communities for active participation across the value chain will also be critical”.