The Chairman of Heir Oil and Gas, Tony Elumelu, has canvassed for an energy transition deal that priotizes access to funding for crude oil exploration and production in Nigeria and other African countries.
Elumelu who said this in an interview with CNN, argued that Africa’s contribution to global carbon emission is less than 2 percent, and considering the continent’s perculiarities, an energy transition deal that encourages and supports funding for energy should be adopted in the interest of Africa.
“Access to electricity like I said before in Nigeria is extremely poor. Carbon emission in this part of the world is less than 2 percent. So we are not even at the point where we should be talking of this,” he said.
He, however, acknowledged that climate change effect is real, but stated that “… we think that there should be a different kind of conversation that should allow developing countries, especially Nigeria, other African countries to come up a bit. So there should be a deal to encourage, support (these) countries, because renewables to a large extent is limited in terms of capability and capacity to support the energy consumption that we need in this part of the world to even come to the basic level that others have experienced in other parts of the world.”
According to Elumelu, “In the area of energy financing, we need a deal that supports African institutions and African economies to address this issue” adding that cutting funding in energy area to Africa is kind of stifling the continent.
“We need to see in Nigeria a deal that priotizes, encourages and supports energy funding”, he noted.
As Nigerians prepare to elect new leaders next year, Elumelu tasked those that will be elected to power in the next elections to make security a top priority as well as improve on infrastructure. He lamented that while oil producing countries are currently benefiting from the high oil prices, Nigeria is not because of crude oil theft in the Niger Delta area.
“We need to make sure that we help improve on infrastructure. Crude oil production has come down because of oil theft in the Niger Delta area. We need to fix it. There is so much happening in the world in terms of …oil price has gone up but my country is not benefiting from this because of theft,” he said.
He explained that oil is Nigeria’s commonwealth and few people cannot continue to steal from the country, adding that Federal Government needs to engage relevant security agencies to do what they are supposed to do.
