The Chairman and Managing Director, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Mr. Jeffrey Ewing, has urged the Federal Government to address the security challenges in the Niger Delta for oil and gas activities to thrive.
A statement on Wednesday from the company quoted Ewing as giving the advice during the 2017 conference and exhibition of the National Association of Petroleum Explorationists.
The Chevron boss, however, commended the efforts of the Federal Government to engage in dialogue with leaders in the Niger Delta.
He noted that the industry stakeholders expected that in the foreseeable future, the environment would become more secure for business and oil and gas activities to flourish.
Ewing said, in order to sustain oil and gas production at required levels, security issues should be given priority attention by the government.
The managing director said, “Amidst all these challenges, the security within the Niger Delta needs to be addressed. We are thankful for efforts by the Federal Government of Nigeria to engage in dialogue with leaders in the region.
“We expect that in the foreseeable future, the environment will become more secure for business and for oil and gas activities to thrive. To sustain oil and gas production at required levels, security issues will have to be given priority attention.”
He posited that in the last two years, the oil and gas industry had continued to experience difficulties in the light of persistent low oil prices, stressing that the phenomenon had continued to generate global socio-economic impact.
He said sequel to the fall of crude prices in 2014 and the resulting recession in the Nigerian economy, it had become imperative that the industry should evolve ways to manage the situation.
Ewing said as an industry, the operators must challenge their cost structure and eliminate obstacles that could directly or indirectly introduce unwanted cost premiums into doing business.
He said each key player in the oil and gas industry must look inwards and identify resource saving measures, opportunities for collaboration, efficiency and optimised operations to save cost, insisting that the more viable their business, the more they would contribute to the economy.
He, however, said that significant progress had been made with regard to funds, noting that recent successes in ‘third party funding’ for some projects had resulted in increase in production volumes.
