Abuja – Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, Director, Centre for Petroleum, Energy Economics and Law, on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to develop strategies that would maximise the use of oil in production.
Adenikinju said this at the 6th African Petroleum Congress and Exhibition in Abuja.
He spoke on the topic: “Assessing the impact of oil volatility vis-à-vis future demand.’’
Adenikinju noted that over 6,000 products could be produced from oil other than the usage in auto mobile industry.
According to him, out of the 6,000 products, 140 of can be easily harnessed.
“ Here in Nigeria, we produce only three or four products while elsewhere, oil is the basis of pharmaceutical, glass industry and so many other things and yet we are not utilising that.
“I think if this country wants to survive beyond oil, we must start planning now because the world is not waiting for us.
“ The world is going to get away from oil sooner than we think,’’ he said.
Adenikinju said Nigeria needed people that could manage the oil industry in such a way that it would utilise the potentials in the sector.
“Nigeria must be conscious of the fact that we need to maximise the oil we have and the best way is to have a strategic plan.[pro_ad_display_adzone id=”70560″]
“The strategy should be both short term and long term; the short term will be to see how we can develop the industry and link it to the rest of the economy.
“For a long time we have exported only crude and imported petrol; we are not processing and see the kind of queues we have today.
He further called for collaboration among the three key players in the industry.
He gave the three players as the oil sector, government and the academia.
According to him, there is need to challenge the universities to come up with appropriate projects, designs and research that could help the nation.
He said the involvement of the academia would help the nation make adequate use of its resources. (NAN)
