Oilserve Limited has revealed plans to bid for all moribund Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPC) pipeline distribution systems to ease products distribution chain in the country.
Mr Emeka Okwuosa, Group Chairman, Oilserv Limited, who disclosed this in a chat with journalists at the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston, Texas, United States, said that one of the subsidiary company of Oilserv, Frazimex Engineering Ltd. had submitted a tender to the NNPC
He said: “As we speak today, one of our companies is working closely with NNPC. There is a tender going on on how to correct the moribund distribution systems for petroleum products distribution. We see them all over Nigeria. They are not functional.
“But we want to buy them over, rebuild them and make energy available; instead of having people transport petrol and diesel from Port Harcourt to Makurdi, for example. Does it make any sense?
“There is a pipeline built many years ago but, really, it is not there anymore because it has been damaged and not maintained. We are also addressing that. We’ve also gone into renewables,” he said.
Okwuosa said that the company was working to build gas networks, built locally, and then operate.
“That means that we are already trying to address the issue of energy availability within our group,” he said.
He told journalists his company has a clear energy transition strategy.
“Apart from developing it, we sensitise people about it and review it regularly. We’ve also gone into renewables. We are not, at this point, developed in renewables. But we have a partnership with a German company to address the renewables, solar or whatever.
“We are more concerned about how we can utilise the principle of both green and blue hydrogen. We want to be able to generate power without having to damage the environment. So, we are already moving into that sector.
“But going into the new phase of energy delivery takes a lot of time to plan, a lot of investments. And like I said, if you look at Nigeria, we also have some issues,” he said.
Okwuosa said most of the countries in the world that have developed and still developing have frameworks to encourage these developments.
“By way of tax rebate, addressing price issues to make sure that entry points, in terms of costs for these alternatives, will not be too high.Unfortunately, we don’t see any articulated situation like that in Nigeria. What that means is that there is really no encouragement for any investor to come into that as a business because he cannot compete today in terms of pricing with fossil fuels.
“But we cannot give up, it’s about engaging the government, it’s about pushing because we have no choice. If we don’t, the train will keep moving and we’ll get to a point where our oil is there but we cannot produce.”