Olusola Bello
The secretary general of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Mohammad Sanusi Barkindo, has said the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill ( PIB), will help guide the necessary reforms designed to strengthen institutions, solidify regulatory and fiscal frameworks and attract much-need investment in a sustainable manner.
This historic achievement has ushered in a new era in global energy cooperation as OPEC and its non-OPEC partners continue to provide crucial support to the oil market, in the interest of producers, consumers and the global economy.
The OPEC boss who spoke Tuesday at the ongoing Nigeria Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition © 2021 in Abuja said that Nigeria and its fellow OPEC Member Countries have suffered massive economic losses, and its oil and gas industries were in dire straits because of Covid 19
He however stated that the rapid and decisive response of the DoC producers once again came to the rescue and delivered CPR to an industry on the verge of collapse.
In the past weeks and months, we have seen a welcome shift in momentum as significant progress continues to be made on the rollout of global vaccination campaigns. More than 3.2 billion doses have now been administered globally, and millions more are being provided each.
He said, additionally, there are signs that the international community is ramping up its support to developing countries to help bolster their acquisition of life-saving vaccines. “In this regard, the G7 recently announced combined pledges of 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses to be distributed around the world, of which at least half are expected to be delivered by the end of 2021.”
He said the hope is that this support will continue to grow in the weeks and months to come. The world will only truly defeat this pandemic when both developing and developed countries have the ability to vaccinate their populations to reach herd immunity. This, in turn, will enable all countries to re-open their economies and bring their energy industries back up to full-speed.
According to him, OPEC supports the need to reduce emissions, bolster efficiency and embrace innovation, but we must be aware of the risk we run of not adequately investing in the future of this industry. “We are already dealing with the harsh impacts the COVID-19 pandemic has had on investment, which declined by 30% in 2020. If this were to continue, we could see demand exceed supply, posing a significant energy security risk to both producers and consumers”
