Uche Usim, Abuja
To harness and deepen the utilisation of hydrocarbon across Africa, the Federal Government has rallied oil producers on the continent to collaborate in that regard.
To realize this objective, the Minister of State, Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, at the weekend met with his counterparts in Angola, Gabon and South Sudan on the matter.
Sylva, who doubles as President of the African Petroleum Producers Organisation (APPO), had toured the African oil producing nations that are also signatories to the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC’s) Declaration of Cooperation (DoC) agreement to discuss compliance ahead of the next Joint Ministerial Meeting Committee (JMMC) of OPEC and non-OPEC countries in Vienna, Austria, in December.
He stated that as a member of international energy groups such as the OPEC and APPO, Nigeria needed to further deepen its collaboration with fellow African nations so as to grow the continent’s oil industry.
Sylva, who was accompanied by the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mallam Mele Kyari, and Nigeria’s OPEC Governor, Dr. Omar Farouk Ibrahim, explained that African oil producers needed to work together to judiciously utilise their abundant hydrocarbon resources for the benefit of their respective citizens.
Speaking shortly after meeting the Gabonese Minister of Oil, Gas and Hydrocarbons, Mr. Noel Mboumba in Libreville, Sylva described his meeting with his counterpart on APPO and OPEC as very fruitful, saying that both countries had reached meaningful conclusions that would benefit their countries’ oil industry.
“We believe that we can work together, which in the long run, will be good for our respective nations. Our interest in Nigeria is to further deepen our relationship with Gabon going forward,” Sylva told journalists at the Headquarters of the Gabonese Oil Ministry during the meeting.
On his part, Mboumba commended Sylva for the visit, noting that Gabon has a lot to benefit from Nigeria’s experience in the Oil and Gas Industry and leadership at APPO.