The women in Energy, Oil and Gas, Delta State Chapter, has called on the federal government to allow more investors to get into the country’s oil and gas industry.
According to The Punch, the government was urged to stop flaring Nigeria’s gas reserves and transform them into useable energy that could be utilized to power objects as a matter of policy.
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 on Friday at Government House Annex, Warri.
According to her, “women professionals are prepared to assume leadership roles in these areas.
“There are a lot of professional women here. Their reluctance to be seen is the issue. Our culture and tradition desire for a woman to hide and be behind the scenes. However, we have seen numerous female professors in the oil and gas industry throughout this drive. We have a platform to extract these unprocessed gems thanks to this forum,” she said.
Okekpolo emphasized that the nation had substantial gas reserves that are currently being flared, which she claimed “could have otherwise been converted to usable energy that we can use to power things” and urged the Nigerian government to refrain from this practice.
“I think gas flaring is like a waste of a lot of resources, and it also degrades our environment. Numerous byproducts from the production of petrol and oil can be beneficial to the growth of our economy,” the woman stated.
“I believe we ought to shift our main emphasis and expand our oil and gas operations. We are still extracting and exporting from the periphery. To ensure that the energy industry is transformative, we should hone and strengthen our industries around this.
“There are many nations that don’t use gas to cook,” Okekpolo continued. “The economy is driven by the oil and gas energy sector. The turbines that produce the electricity we see are run by gas. Therefore, if gas is costly, the welder, saloons, and fish seller will also find electricity to be costly.”
