Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, Thursday, said the Federal Government is using the transformation of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and the National Gas Expansion Programme, NGEP, as major strategies to strengthen the petroleum industry and insulate the economy from low oil prices.

Speaking at the 13^th International Conference of the Nigerian Association for Energy Economics, NAEE, in Abuja, Sylva stated the COVID-19 pandemic and progressive decline in crude oil prices in 2020, had made it imperative for Nigeria to aggressively pursue the diversification of its portfolio to non-oil businesses.

This, according to him, was to cushion the effect of a future crash in crude oil prices and position the oil and gas industry for growth in a post-COVID world. He further stated that the government had come to terms with the application of domestic gas as a platform to drive a truly sustainable in-country economic diversification.

Sylva said: “Our strategy to strengthen the Nigerian oil and gas industry in a post-COVID-19 world is to transform our national oil company into a diversified energy holding company to enable us respond swiftly to the twin challenges of a future crash in crude oil prices and decarbonization, by moving rapidly to becoming an energy holding company with more diverse interests.

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Source: SweetCrudeReports