The current global energy narrative indicates that Natural Gas is the fuel of the future. PTDF is promoting and giving effect to the Federal government drive to move the nations’ Economy from crude oil export base to a gas-based industrial economy. PTDF second Quarterly Lecture Series with the theme“Overview of the Nigerian Gas Sector” gave more impetus and urgency to the role of PTDF in realizing this objective through its capacity building programmes in the oil and gas industry.
The lecture was delivered by the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Gas Invest Limited, Dr David Ige who was the immediate past Group Executive Director of Gas and Power at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
In the lecture, Dr Ige gave a general overview of the gas sector such as the production of gas, the key changing trend like petrol gas phenomenon and miniaturization, transportation of LNG as well as the policy evolution of gas in Nigeria with specific attention to the gas master plan. He also spoke about the implementation status and suggested areas that PTDF can focus on for capacity development in natural gas.
He emphasized the need for OIL to focus more on gas engineering in order to know how to manage gas in its totality. He added that PTDF should start training people who understand how to deal with high pressure and low-temperature regimes so that there can be a new crop of people who are not only designers but can also play in the regulatory agencies of the country. Furthermore, he emphasized the need for PTDF to also develop commercial skills capacity and not only on technology which has been the focus of PTDF in the past.
This he said, is because gas is quite commercial, so there is a need to also have people who go into legal and commercial type programmes in order to begin to develop a body of expertise that is able to negotiate agreements that are favourable to stakeholders and to Nigeria as a whole. He suggested other areas PTDF should focus on to include Cryogenics, Petrochemical Technologies, Gas Utilization technologies as well as HSE due to the new safety standard that is required.
The Executive Secretary, PTDF, Dr Bello Aliyu Gusau thanked Dr David Ige for taking out time to deliverer such valuable lecture. He urged Dr Ige to continue in his National Service that he has been providing in the past, both in the NNPC, in the PIB and in the Gas Sector. “We hope to knock on your door a few more times so that we can get more value from your expertise,” he said.
Dr Gusau also commended the staff in general for their commitment to the lecture series. He urged them to internalize what they have learnt and reiterated that the idea is for the PTDF to increasingly integrate into the Nigerian oil and gas industry because “no one can build capacity on a matter he does not have knowledge about”.
Source: PTDF
