The Nigerian government and the United States of America on Monday expressed their willingness to strengthen partnership in Nigeria’s energy sector.
Officials of the Nigerian government, and the U.S. Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Energy Resources, Geoffrey Pyatt, made the commitment when a U.S. energy delegation visited the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) Towers in Abuja on Monday.
Mr Pyatt expressed the U.S.’ desire to consolidate relationships with the Nigerian government, especially in the area of energy.
According to him, the move reflects President Joe Biden and the U.S. government’s commitment to partner with Nigeria.
“My presence with my team here in Abuja today is a reflection of President Biden and the U.S. government’s commitment to our partnership with Nigeria.
“Our understanding of the importance of the decisions that you have to make about how to continue to develop your resources in a way that delivers benefits for the citizens of this country and also protects our shared environment, I had the opportunity last December to sit down with NNPCL GCEO, Mele Kyari, on the margins of the Africa Leaders Summit.
He noted that the event reflected Mr Biden’s direction to everyone to lean into partnerships with Africa and to identify opportunities to further grow the cooperation between American companies and the American government and their counterparts.
“Nigeria is at the heart of that effort because of your size, because of the leadership that your country exercises across the continent and because in terms of this ministry, because of the globally significant asset that Nigeria possesses,” Mr Pyatt said.
He explained that “it is a moment of profound transportation in the global energy system and two huge disruptions have risen at the same time”.
One, he said, is the energy transition itself, the rapid shift to more sustainable sources of power and the emergence of technologies that allow people to reduce the carbon intensity of the fossil fuels used.
“The other factor, of course, is Russia and the implications for the global market, from having a country that until last year was the world’s largest oil and gas producer, to having marginalised itself through its actions in Ukraine and the sanctions that have followed.
“So we see tremendous opportunity here. I’m very proud of the work that my Bureau, the Bureau of Energy Resources has done jointly with NNPCL specifically in the area of carbon management and we are committed to continuing that partnership. In just the next few weeks, we will have a team back here,” he said.
Opportunities
Speaking further, Mr Pyatt said: “We also see opportunities in terms of delivering more power for the citizens of Nigeria and recognising that President Tinubu has made a very strong start, which offers the prospect of unlocking new growth and new interest for foreign investors, including significantly the American companies that have historically played a very large role in the Nigerian energy economy.
“I just want to respond very quickly specifically to say how much I welcome the proposal on the creation of a vehicle for more systematic engagement between our governments on these issues.”
He said one of the specific proposals that he will make to the Nigerian president is the creation of a U.S.-Nigeria strategic energy dialogue.
“We have these dialogues with our closest allies, for instance in Asia, with Japan, with Korea, with Thailand, with Australia in order to bring together all of the strands of the U.S. government, our various agencies, to look at exactly the cross-cutting issues that you describe, energy security, energy transition, recycling, energy access and ensuring that our citizens have the power we require, so we’re thinking in the same direction.
“And again, I want to highlight this as an element of President Biden’s commitment to our relationship with your government and our determination to be your preferred partner on these issues,” he said.
Speaking during the visit, Gabriel Aduda, the Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, said: “We want to assure you that Nigeria is very ready to work with your team to ensure the adjustment of the equitable and very swift transition the best we can.
“As we said, we need to also be mindful of your resources available to us because there are quite a number of options that are open to the transition and for Nigeria now, gas is our transition fuel and we want to see every form of collaboration assistance that will help us maximise the use of gas, which we all have agreed is a cleaner form of energy in our transition agenda,” Mr Aduda said.
He added that “the ministry is doing that with every sense of responsibility and will want to work with the U.S. team to see how they can push the domestication of usage of gas as an alternator fuel, and then not only in people’s houses and automobiles but also in the nation’s decade of gas agenda”.
“We hope that the working group that will be set up between Nigeria and the United States will pay very close attention,” he said.
“The government of Nigeria has gone ahead to put in place incentives that will help and then push investors into this area so that we can very quickly cover the gaps that are out there and then, of course, the new Electricity Act that has just been put in place also has further expanded this opportunity by opening up the opportunity to capture energies here and there, which we feel will further provide the much-needed energy even in silos until we are able to very significantly reduce the energy poverty that we have been faced with.”
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