Amid long queues at petrol stations which have paralysed social and economic activities nationwide, the 5th Nigeria International Energy Summit (NIES 2022) begin on Monday morning in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
Already, over 5,000 delegates from 53 countries who are participating in the energy summit bill to hold February 27-March 3, 2022 have been shell-shocked seeing the long, chaotic queues of vehicles at filling stations as people struggled to buy petrol as scarcity bites harder.
Sources noted that the arrival of the delegates amid the fuel scarcity was bad public relations for Nigeria as even in Abuja, they beheld frustrated motorists lined up in long queues stretching several metres.
The NIES is a Federal Government of Nigeria official energy industry event with the Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources and all its parastatals including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NURPC), Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) and Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) as joint hosts.
Nigeria’s Minister of State Petroleum Resources, Mr Timipre Sylva, said on Friday that the opening ceremony and award dinner will take place at the Banquet Hall, Presidential Villa Abuja while the plenary sessions and exhibitions will be at the International Conference Centre (ICC), Abuja.
He added that major deals are expected to be sealed at the summit.
“The theme of the summit, “Revitalising the Industry: Future Fuels and Energy Transition”. Our objective is to drive a new narrative and make energy transition the cornerstone of the country’s industry policy.
“The event producers, Brevity Anderson, are leveraging on the successes of the past four editions of the event to make NIES 2022 bigger, better.
“Some of our confirmed international guests include The Honourable Minister of Energy, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, who will be represented by Dr Nasser AlDossary. Others are Tom Alweendo, Minister of Mines and Energy, Namibia, H.E Gabriel Mbaga Obiang Lima, Minister of Mines and Hydrocarbons, Equatorial Guinea and Aime Ngoy Mukena, Minister of Hydrocarbons, Democratic Republic of Congo. The global energy leader and the Secretary General of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Dr Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo has also confirmed his attendance”, Sylva explained.
He added that key international and indigenous companies like Shell Petroleum & Development Company Limited, Total Exploration & Production, Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) Limited, Dangote Refinery, Waltersmith Petroman and a host of others used the summit platform for special presentations to drive their aspirations and launch major projects.