Uche Usim, Abuja
To further grow the nation’s economic fortunes, the Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Dr. Maikati Baru, has charged members of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE) to deploy their wealth of knowledge and experience to find more crude oil to meet the 40 million barrels reserves target.
He gave this charge yesterday when the leadership of NAPE paid him a courtesy visit at the NNPC Towers, Abuja.
The GMD who described the group as the foundation of the oil industry on account of the critical role of its members in the oil and gas value- chain urged members to go beyond convention and search deeper and wider to ensure the sustainability of the barrel by “finding more, producing more, and doubling production reserve ratios on a yearly basis”.
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He informed that NNPC was involved in extensive exploration work in the inland basins with a view to finding more oil to grow the nation’s crude oil reserves.
Speaking on the purpose of their visit, President of NAPE, Dr. Andrew Eyayeriese, informed the GMD of the group’s upcoming conference scheduled to hold from November 19th -23rd in Lagos and invited the GMD participate as keynote speaker at the event.
In a related development, the NNPC boss, Baru, has challenged Nigerian engineers to come up with technologies to help deepen the development of renewable energy in the country.
The NNPC helmsman threw the challenge during a courtesy call on him by members of the executive committee of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Abuja Branch, led by its Chairman, Engr. Chinasaokwu Okolie.
The GMD highlighted some of the corporation’s strides in the development of renewable energy across various states of the country using abundant natural resources like palm oil, cassava, and sugarcane.
He said the projects would help create the much needed linkage between the energy and agricultural sectors and urged members of the NSE to come up with technologies and strategies to enhance the integration process for the growth of the economy.
He congratulated Engr. Okolie on his emergence as chairman and commended the branch for its good work in training members and making engineering attractive especially at the grassroots.
He said NNPC was committed to producing clean hydrocarbons in an environmentally friendly manner for the benefits of all Nigerians.
On his part, Chairman of NSE Abuja Chapter, Engr. Okolie, commended the GMD for his purposeful leadership which has led to greater investor confidence and growth of daily crude oil production from about 1.5 million barrels per day (mbpd) to the current 2.3mbpd.
The highpoint of the visit was the presentation of a plaque to the GMD in recognition of his efforts in the development of the oil and gas industry.