The Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, yesterday, advised Nigerians to take up the ownership and fully domesticate every aspect of the oil and gas industry.
This is as he harped that it is the time for indigenous companies to begin investing in acquisitions, technology, processing and research in all aspects of petroleum, currently dominated by foreign firms in Nigeria.
Aregbesola, according to a statement by his media adviser, Sola Fasure, gave the charge at the 2023 Nigerian Oil and Gas Opportunity Fair, held at the Nigerian Content Tower Conference and Exhibition Centre, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State.
Aregbesola, who stressed that the industry as the mainstay of the nation’s economy needs domestication to ward off the dependency syndrome, said it would allow locals to be in the driver’s seat of their economy.
While acknowledging that foreign investors are also key players that must be attracted to aid results and boost returns, the minister added that research into petroleum utilisation and maximisation should also be encouraged by indigenous companies to generate the knowledge base for the country’s specific needs in the sector.
He also stressed the need for Nigeria to adopt a 25-year alternative power template, that would be driven by gas, so as not to be stampeded by the electric motor transition of the West.
His words: “We should not only take our own destiny in our hands, we should dominate the oil and gas market in sub-Saharan Africa. We should be able to supply refined petroleum products to our immediate neighbours and other African countries. We should also leverage on gas to produce electricity for domestic consumption and export. We will be making 10 times revenue on finished products than on primary products, which will create more wealth and prosperity for the nation.
“As the world begins a transition to electric motor vehicles, Nigeria should adopt gas as the transition energy for the next 25 years, and not be stampeded by the West into the electric car bandwagon. We should convert the existing motor vehicles to be using gas, which we have in abundant supply. Nigeria has about the third largest natural gas reserve in the world. We should take maximum advantage of it for our national interest.
“We should also begin to plan for the alternative use of oil in a way that will not disrupt our economy and well-being of the people, when the day eventually arrives, that motor vehicles no longer use fuel.
“I will urge this conference to resolve that Nigeria should domesticate the oil and gas industry in the next 25 years. Putting a timeline is important to achieving a set goal. Hopefully, we would have achieved this objective at the expiration of that time or very close to it,” Aregbesola stated further. He concluded”.
