By Nnenna Ezeah
NIGERIAN Association of Petroleum Explorationists, NAPE, a body of geosciences professionals, has said its 29th National Annual International Conference and Exhibition, NAICE, will now hold in Lagos, instead of Abuja, the nation’s capital as originally planned.

The association attributed the change in the venue of the conference to insecurity, logistics, power instability and the consideration of the location of the stakeholders and the participants.

The conference now scheduled to hold from November 28 to December 1, has the theme: “Perspectives on Growing Hydrocarbon Reserves in the Next Decade”, in view of the imperative of finding new hydrocarbon reserves in the face of escalating global demand for energy.

Vice President Namadi Sambo, and the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, are to be special guest of honour and guest of honour respectively.

Alternative energy sources

Briefing journalists, NAPE’s president, Mr. Jide Ojo, said the theme of this year’s conference was selected based on the fact that one of the potential drivers for growth of the Nigerian oil and gas industry would be a renewed search for alternative energy sources.

“Nations endowed with hydrocarbon reserves will need to create and sustain a business environment that will attract greater investment and facilitate processes that will further promote exploration and post exploration activities aimed at harnessing hydrocarbon resources. The ultimate aim is to derive maximum value for all stakeholders in an environmentally friendly way.”

Pointing out that the conference promises to be a very exciting one, Ojo said the five sub-themes under the main conference theme would address a particular aspect on the issue of reserve growth.

“The five sub themes are quantification of reserves in sedimentary basins; enabling environment for enhanced exploration and exploitation of hydrocarbon reserves; reserves growth through news and emerging exploration plays; value creation through applicable and cost effective technologies; and quick value creation from small to medium fields.”

On the 29th November, the theme of the special discourse will be “the Nigerian oil and gas industry content development Act: implementation challenges for the oil and gas industry, and will be chaired by the Group Vice Chairman, Conoil upstream exploration and production companies, Dr. Ebi Omatsola.

As part of NAPE’s effort at monitoring young entrants into the oil and gas industry, this year’s conference will feature a special event tagged ‘Young Professionals Event’, which is expected to contribute immensely to the association’s students’ mentoring efforts and promote the practice of the geosciences amongst the student population. More than half of NAPE’s roll call is made up of students.

NAPE’s President elect and Chairman of the conference planning committee, Mr. Mayowa Afe, said “the conference technical programme is built around sub-themes such that will emphasize new approaches to estimating hydrocarbon potential, provide a basis for initial ranking of prospects as well as future exploration strategies and prospectivity evaluation.”

For NAPE’s Publicity Secretary, Mr. Sola Bakare, the choice of this year’s theme and its various sub themes will definitely generate a high level of interest and discussions.