By Yusuf Yunus
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) says the commission will continue to support indigenous oil and companies to grow, especially with the right policies and regulations.
Mr Gbenga Komolafe, Chief Executive, NUPRC, said this when he paid a visit to the Exhibition Stand of Green Energy International Ltd. at the ongoing Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, U.S. on Wednesday.
He said that the commission would continue to support companies, in the ranks of Green Energy International, with quick turnaround time for licensing and other necessary approvals needed to grow their business.
He said that at a time that funding for oil and gas projects was becoming difficult due to policies around energy transition and a deliberate shift to renewable energy projects, the company had been able to secure one.
According to him, the ability of the company to secure funding for its various projects is a testament that it was on the right track and as such, needed all the right support to grow.
‘‘If you look at what the company has done. You will discover that they have tried to leverage in-country capability and that is in alignment with what NUPRC is doing.
“We have come here as a commission to give them encouragement and to assure the company that new will give them all the backing as a business enabler,’’ he said.
Komolafe said that NUPRC, as a business enabler, would ensure that its policies and regulations were enabling enough to incentivise businesses to grow.
In growing businesses, he said that companies would be requiring different types of permits and licenses for operational efficiency in reducing unit costs of production in a manner to make them competitive.
He maintained that the NUPRC was working to ensure that the turnaround time for issuing permits and licenses were reduced drastically to increase operational efficiency.
Also speaking, Chairman, Green Energy International, Prof. Anthony Adegbulugbe, said the company which was incorporated in 2006 is the operator of the Otakikpo marginal field in Oil Mining Lease(OML) 11.
He explained that the company was set up to explore all the opportunities in the oil and gas value chain for the overall benefits of its stakeholders and the Nigerian economy.
According to him, the mandate of the company is to create localised domestic markets based on small scale gas opportunities in its local host communities, Nigeria, and Africa at large.
‘‘In 2010, the Federal Government decided to implement a World Bank study on Small Scale Gas Utilisation and the Otakikpo Marginal Field was awarded to Green Energy to undertake the pilot project.
“The implementation of this project will involve the installation of LPG processing and bottling plants,” Adegbulugbe said.
The chairman said that since the company began operations, it had recorded five million cumulative man-hours without lost-time injury (LTI).
He said: “Approaching banks for funding is one of the requirements, so that they are sure that there are no restiveness issues that would impact operations negatively.”
(NAN)
