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The Federal Government has been called upon to open up the nation’s oil and gas sector for more investors to come in.
In this regard, the Government was enjoined to, as a matter of policy, put a halt to the flaring of gas reserves in Nigeria and convert such to usable energy that could be used to power things.
The Director of the International Forum for Women in Energy, Oil and Gas, Delta State Chapter, Mrs Ogochuku Okekpolo, made the call during the induction of pioneer members of the forum in the State, held at Government House Annex, Warri on Friday.
She maintained that “women professionals are ready to take leadership roles in these respects”.
“We have many women who are professionals. The problem is that they don’t want to be visible. Our tradition, our culture wants a woman to be behind, to hide. But in this drive, we have met many women professors in oil and gas. This forum gives us a platform where we can draw out these raw golds”, she stated.
In urging the Nigerian Government against gas flaring, Okekpolo noted that the country has a lot of gas reserves presently being flared which, according to her, “could have otherwise been converted to usable energy that we can use to power things”.
She said, “I think gas flaring not only degenerates our environment, it is like a wastage of a lot of resources. Oil and gas have a lot of by-products that can be useful in the development of our economy.
“I think we should leave the primary focus and grow in our oil and gas business. We are still at the periphery, just extracting and exporting. We should refine and build our industries around this so that our energy sector is transformational”.
Okekpolo added, “There are many nations who don’t use gas to cook. The oil and gas energy sector drives the economy. The electricity we see, the turbines are powered by gas. So, if gas is expensive, then electricity is expensive to the welder, the saloon, fish seller on the street; they can’t preserve without light and that is energy driven by gas”.
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