The golden era of easy oil is over…Today the rules of the game have changed: Developing local economies, stimulating industrial development, increasing local capability, building a skilled workforce and creating a competitive supplier base – also referred to as local content – are minimum requirements for doing business with host countries and national oil companies,” a recent Accenture report stated.

It has been mixed fortunes for the Nigerian energy sector since the current democratic dispensation began May 29, 1999. Since the return to democracy, the sector has recorded significant improvement in key parameters such as in reserves and production while it also recorded an increase in other negative parameters, like increase in pipeline vandalism, crisis in the area of subsidy payment, increased corruption, and divestments by oil majors among others.

The Minister of Power, Prof Chinedu Nebo has announced the planned streaming of additional 1,000 Mega watts, MW of solar power yearly to boost energy needs in the country over the next 10 years, to be boosted by the coming on board of a Korean firm set to inject funds into the process.

Regulation has been identified as key to future industry growth and development, the Director, Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, Mr. Osten Olorunsola in this interview with Clara Nwachukwu and Sebastine Obasi, in Houston Texas, USA, speaks on the role of the regulator under a new PIB. Excerpts:

Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, has expressed concern over the abandonment of projects by the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, in many parts of the country.