Dr. James Edet, FNAPE | NAPE 44TH President | Inaugural Address.
Welcome, acknowledgments, thank you and introductions.
I want to recognize and thank the members of the Board of Trustees, Advisory Board, Past Presidents, Distinguished Fellows, Honorary members, Executive Committee, 2021 Conference Planning Committee, and every one of our distinguished NAPE members.
I also gratefully acknowledge my organisation, TotalEnergies Nigeria Limited for the opportunity to take on this prestigious yet tasking industry representation, a show of our five core values of a performance-minded attitude, a pioneer spirit, safety, respect for each other, and the need to stand together, all of these have been demonstrated during my tenure as President-elect and chairman, conference planning committee in this recently concluded conference.
There are many people I would like to thank, but as the saying goes, time and human possibility at forgetfulness will not allow that, but each knows that I am truly thankful for your support. I would also like to recognize my family, my wife and children for their support and patience.
In 1975, when Dr. Akomeno Oteri, FNAPE together with his peers started NAPE, they sure had audacious goals. NAPE, currently at 46years, have created numerous opportunities for oil explorationists and geoscientists in Nigeria and today, at over 12000 registered members strong, we are privileged by the courageous act of this young man and his pioneering friends, many of whom are still with us till-date.
Following our formal transition at the just concluded awards night, where Mrs. Patricia Ochogbu, FNAPE transitioned to become the immediate Past President, and I became President, we are gradually completing the various handover that necessarily needs to happen to kickstart our new administration. You will agree that NAPE has a great, if not the best structure at having a current President, President-elect who job shadows and the Immediate Past President who acts in advisory capacity in one executive at any point in time.
In the days ahead, focus will be on our future, but for now, it is imperative to truly reflect on the past years, especially the last two and stay thankful to the resilience of NAPE members, their learning and agile mindset and approach to delivery. The past year have been a rocky one for our industry, from COVID19 pandemic, Energy Transition and accompanying pluri-dimensional issues to the current Petroleum Industry Act whose execution details are currently been worked.
NAPE, as an organization under my leadership will continue to steadfastly advocate for the Geosciences advancement and integration, recommend and advise on policy initiatives that will add continuous value to the upstream business, create the platform for upstream petroleum industry stakeholders to share knowledge, network and collaborate in the development of the upstream petroleum industry in Nigeria.
On the backdrop of this, it is important to state some obvious fact:
– Oil production in Nigeria has decreased to an average of 1.6million barrel per day with NUPRC commitment to increase reserves to 40 billion barrels and raise production to three (3) million barrels per day.
– Global Energy Transition agenda of limiting the global average temperature to 1.5oC, with focus on reducing energy generated from fossil fuel sources.
– Reduction in Upstream Investment Opportunities amidst a structured fiscal framework enacted within the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA, 2021)
– Covid19, accompanying variant(s) and its lingering impact.
– The future of work, role of digitalisation, Artificial Intelligence, Virtual and collaborative tools that can optimize value delivery. Amongst several other pertinent issues.
With these foregoing, NAPE will continue to create a strong platform for her members and member organization to continually seek the optimal value from exploration and production activities, as we are convinced beyond reasonable doubt that oil and gas will remain a predominant source of energy in the next few decades, amidst the energy mix.
From the outcome of our successful conference, we see that the pandemic truly endangered the health and safety of the environment, our industry, and its workforce, with most of our members still working from home or in skeletal rotations. This continues to emphasize our nation and continent’s unique need of leading people out of energy poverty, hence climate change mitigation plans for us will continue to seek redress on creating a “just” energy transition strategy for our nation as we all earnestly join forces to ensure that we support our member organizations to bring production up to an economically dependable level, keep the flare out and embrace other alternative energy source in the mix, as we transition.
At NAPE, our mantra “Our ideas find Oil and Gas” continues to steward us into a future of exploration activities to replace our produced reserves and harness the huge gas potential the Niger Delta has been proven to have.
The landscape shows that we must brace up for newer changes in our ways of working, and one of our goals will be to position and equip our members with new skills for their future workplace agility and adaptability.
NAPE also offers a unique approach at collaborating for Research and Development with our Academia community, this initiatives through our University Assistance Program will be further strengthened and support to foster an open channel for cross exchange of ideas and conducive career and personnel growth in petroleum operations.
Our activities last year will be the benchmark for 2022 activities, and the executives will continue to work earnestly with other NAPE members to ensure that we continue to provide appropriate membership and industry value.
We will continue to offer practical industry support through our external advocacy with our regulatory agencies, collaboration within the international Oil companies, the Independents Oil Companies, the Marginal operators, service, and consulting organizations and all members at large.
“Our ideas find Oil and Gas” continues to steward us into a future of exploration and production activities to be able to lift our nation out of energy and socio-economic poverty.
Thank you and God bless.
Dr. James Edet, FNAPE