Energy

Nigeria is the sixth largest oil producer in the world. With an OPEC quota of 2.21 million barrels (worth = $17.36 million) per day, we export 1.10 million barrels (57%), refine 0.5 million barrels (27%) for domestic use, and keep 0.53 million barrels (27.3%) on strategic reserve. In 2000 and 2001, exploration in the rich Benin embankment and the deep continental shelf opened up vast new deposits which will place the Nigerian oil industry in an entirely new league. The prospects for the future are promising.

But the Nigerian oil experience has been dogged by unfathomable difficulties. Host communities in the Niger Delta who have never been properly consulted have been up in arms threatening at every turn to stop operations by boarding rigs or by taking workers as hostages. In 2000, the NNPC reported 2,895 cases of the vandalisation of pipelines and other installations of which 6 episodes led to fires in which about a thousand lives were lost. Moreover, the Federal Revenue Mobilization Team in the same year reported revenue losses of N260 billion arising from fraudulent accounting by oil companies and illegal bunkering. In the same year too, the NNPC itself was unable to keep its refineries in operation for a total of 120 days. The experience of Nigerian motorists queuing at petrol filling stations do not need to be recounted. It is quite clear that we have not come close to energy security as far as petrol is concerned.

One of the key problems which afflicts every aspects of our lives Mt our private homes as well as in our businesses is the lack of a national energy policy which sets out national targets, announces programmes of action with the timing for its different segments, indicates what contributions are expected from petroleum, gas, coal and hydroelectricity and spells out what will be done by public agencies and what contributions are expected from the private sector. The NNPC apparently just proceeded, and more often failed to proceed, to give us fuel upon an unprogrammed and ad hoc basis.

In the gas sector which is still undergoing development, the picture is different. So abundant are the resources that it has been said that Nigeria is a gas producing country which happens to have some petroleum. The first two gas trains are now working. Others are to follow. Already some local industries are re-tooling for the use of gas as their production fuel. It may well be that gas is what we need to lift us from present adversity to prosperity.

With regards to coal, it is estimated that our reserves covering thirteen of the old nineteen states of the federation wm Bauchi to Kogi and Imo States, is about 4750 million metric tonnes. Much of this buried wealth lies waiting for a government that will realise its true possibilities both for domestic energy generation and for export revenue. The fact is that coal fuels 50% of the power generated in the United States of America and 80% of the power generated in India and China.

A government of the All Progressives Grand Alliance will try to realise the following objectives with regard to energy:

i. APGA will initiate a National Energy Policy based upon our proven resources and our need for energy security. It will spell out the roles required for petroleum, gas, coal, hydroelectricity, solar power, nuclear power and any other sources. It will lay the ground rules for indigenous participation in the sector and the rules for foreign investors. It will provide guidelines for energy conservation and energy efficiency, and indicate what must be done or not be done to protect the environment in spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. It will also set targets for future expansion to meet the unfolding needs of the future.

ii. APGA will cooperate with the programme of continuing exploration of our energy resources and empower the private sector to increase the exploitation of new discoveries.

iii. APGA will explore avenues for the exploitation of our coal deposits to increase energy supply. In this regard, the conversion of our coal to a standard required in the production of steel will be put into effect. The production of smokeless coke for domestic use will also be implemented to avoid continued deforestation.

iv. It is quite clear that apart from large power stations, we need a vast number of subsidiary stations. Small hydroelectric systems, small gas-fired turbines, coal stations like Oji, and private sector outfits all of which will contribute to material sufficiency.

v. APGA recognises that the NNPC and its subsidiaries were for the most part unable to do their duty. They failed to create reasonable agreement with their host communities in the Niger Delta or to monitor the activities of their technical partners. They did not satisfy the domestic need for energy or keep a strict account of the revenue due to Government. Their facilities were open to vandalization at all times and their dealers frequently delivered the supplies they collected either to bunkerers or across the Nigerian border. APGA is, therefore, of the opinion that what we need now is a small professional agency charged with regulatory and inspectorate duties only and having no responsibility for production or marketing.

vi. It follows that prospecting refining, lifting and marketing will be private sector operations. However, Nigerian businesses and the Nigerian public must be guaranteed a share in these commercial operations.

vii. Since the first oil operations started at Oloibiri in 1951, Nigeria has produced a large number of persons who have undoubted expertise in every aspect of the oil industry. It is clear that the process of operational indigenisation can now be insisted upon by government. The same principle applies in the coal industry and hydroelectric power generation.

viii. Nigerian oil and gas industries will, however, not be substantially indigenous until our universities have developed academic and industrial attachment programmes capable of training our managers in all aspects of prospecting, extracting, refining, lifting and marketing. It is upon this new cadre of trained manpower that the national energy security will depend.