Ex-UN Diplomat, Ibe to Deliver SPE Nigeria Annual Lecture

A retired diplomat of the United Nations, Prof. Chidi Ibe, will be delivering the Annual Lecture at the Society of Petroleum Engineers Nigeria Council Oloibiri Lecture Series and Energy Forum holding on April 25, 2019.

Other high profile speakers and contributors slated to feature at the event include the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikanti Baru; the keynote speaker and Managing Director of Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company (SPDC), Mr. Bayo Ojulare; among others.

The programme, which will be hosted at the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) facility in Abuja, focuses on the theme: “Energy Sector Security and Development in Nigeria: The Way Forward.”

Speaking at a pre-event press conference in Lagos, the Chairman, SPE Nigeria Council, Mr. Debo Fagbami, said the annual SPE Oloibiri programme was the foray of the society into gas policy development within the country and for the sub-Saharan Africa.

According to Fagbami, the lecture/forum will attract participation from government, heads of agencies, and heads of industries, as well as stakeholders from across Africa.

He explained that the theme was essentially coined to stimulate discussions on how Nigerian energy sector can move along the part of sustainability.

He said: “Through OLEF 2019, SPE is providing a platform for governments, regulatory agencies, captains of industry and practitioners, at all levels of the industry to come together under one roof to discuss and come up with ways that Nigeria can develop strategies to develop efficient systems that will require lesser energy to run, and how to use Nigeria’s oil and gas resources to support the nation’s economic growth for the benefit of all stakeholders within the industry.

“We believe that if Nigeria’s energy mix is developed and efficiently utilised and we have energy security, there will be more jobs for our people, even people who developed skills are able to convert those skills to more up-to-date formats of those skills.

“It’s going to have an opportunity for us to have greener environment, greener national wealth as it is and foster sustainable growth and development across the Nigeria economy.”

He noted that the panel discussants for this year had been selected quite in a targeted fashion from cross-section of the energy industry and will be providing diverse views on these topics that are going to be described.

He added: “After the event, SPE in our usual fashion, we’re going to issue a communique which will be circulated right across the energy industry to all the way to the presidency – the government, the regulators, so that we can promote a common understanding of what the takeaways of this forum I going to be.”