The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited, Mele Kyari; the Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB); the Chief Executive Officer of Seplat Energy, Roger Brown, among others, will be speaking at the 40th annual international conference and exhibition of the Nigerian Association of Petroleum Explorationists (NAPE).

The conference, which is scheduled to hold in Lagos from November 13-17, will focus on the theme, “Global Energy Transition and the Future of the Oil and Gas Industry: Evolving Regulations, Emerging Concepts & Opportunities.”

Speaking to journalists at a media parley in Lagos, the President of NAPE, Dr. James Edet, said that the speakers, which cut across high level industry practitioners, key personnel in government and the academia, will be delivering technical papers on several sub themes.

According to him, these themes include energy transition and evolving regulatory framework; gas development, commercialization and monetization in the energy transition era; geo-environmental strategies in the energy transition era; new concepts and approaches in geophysics; and petroleum systems – that is an integrated reservoir modeling.

Others are:  new technology applications in exploration and production; and geoscience in the new energy mix – adapting in a changing world.

The opening ceremony will hold on Tuesday, November 15, 2022 with Kyari as the special guest of honor, while the keynote paper, which will focus on the theme of the conference will be delivered by the CEO of Seplat Energy, Brown.

“Now the rising need for transition towards more sustainable energy resources, energy poverty and global geopolitics requires strategic reappraisal of the energy industry in Nigeria. The nation has an energy transition plan to get us to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2060.

However, there are many factors that need to be considered and appropriately addressed in the nation’s shift to a sustainable energy future. The reality of the climate change is basic in Nigeria, with desertification. You’re all aware of what’s happening in the north and also flooding in the south and some parts of the north. This change calls for a crucial need to significantly reduce carbon emissions while ensuring available and affordable electricity,” Edet said.

He noted that with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA)  and the Climate Change Act now signed into law, the Nigerian oil and gas industry has a role to play towards the successful implementation of these regulations and ambitious plans.

“Globally, significant consumers of the hydrocarbon industry are undergoing a massive technological shift towards low or zero carbon energy usage like electric vehicles and the likes.  The ongoing war, global politics, in- country security challenges and asset divestment have exacerbated the impact of energy supply shortage and altered the energy landscape,” Edet said.

“Furthermore, there are other contending and increasingly relevant issues such as energy security; the dynamics of gas development, commercialization and monetization; development of Nigeria’s under explored gas rich basins; and how Nigeria will adapt her politics or policies and diversify her energy  portfolio in the energy transition era, so as to achieve sustainable growth for her economy.”

NAPE’s annual international conference and exhibition is perhaps the largest gathering of leading scientists and stakeholders in the oil and gas space in Sub-Saharan Africa. NAPE  was founded in 1975, and currently has over 12,000 strong membership.