The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mr Austen Oniwon, has called on stakeholders in the oil and gas industry to work to expand the country’s economy. He  made the call in Abuja at the Nigerian Oil and Gas (NOG-11) Strategic Conference and Exhibition.

Oniwon specifically asked the international partners to extend their investment frontiers to cover all aspects of the industry rather than focusing on the developed economies in the west or east for opportunities.

His paper was entitled, “Integrating NNPC”s Commitment to Nigeria’s Development with Its Commercial Objectives”.

The group managing director said that opportunities for massive investment expansion abound in the country, especially in the power sector. Oniwon also x-rayed the trends in the international energy market. He said that with the recent technological breakthrough in the use of shale gas in the United States, which is the country”s major market, there could be a lull in the demand for Nigeria”s oil and gas.

“With this development, we should be looking elsewhere for opportunities. We could look to Europe in the West or Asia in the East. But rather than look to the West or the East. I think we should look inwards; we should develop the local market by tapping into the opportunities being provided by the Federal Government,” he said.  Oniwon said the Federal Government’s plan to boost power generation from 4,000MW to 40,000MW presented an ample opportunity for oil and gas producers within the country to key in.

He said that about 80 per cent of the projected 36,000MW increase would be produced from gas-fired thermal stations. Oniwon said that the NNPC, having met and surpassed the gas needs of existing thermal power stations, was currently working toward building critical gas infrastructure.

Some of the facilities included the Calabar-Ajaokuta Pipeline and the Ajaokuta-Kaduna- Kano Pipeline. The GMD explained that besides linking the power stations, the proposed gas pipelines would serve as backbone for gas supply to other gas-based industries like petrochemicals and fertiliser plants across the country. Oniwon said the NNPC had since outlined a growth trajectory to ensure that it achieved its quest to transform from a cost centre to a commercially viable entity.

“We have put in place measures to ensure profitable growth for NPDC, create a refining profit centre and build the leading Nigerian petroleum retail business.”

We also plan to build an international supply and trading business while focusing on our gas and power activities across the entire value chain,” he said. According to Oniwon, the NNPC has made extensive plans to drive performance management across its strategic business units.

He called on the stakeholders in the downstream sector not to see NNPC’s strategic investments in the retail business as a ploy to drive them out of the business.

“The terrain is big enough to accommodate all prospective investors,” he said.