NNPC GMD, Mallam Mele Kyari (right), exchanging pleasantries with the President of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigerian Council, Mr. Joe Uwakwe, during the visit of the leadership of the society to the NNPC Towers, Abuja… Tuesday.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has challenged professionals in the Nigerian Petroleum sector to come up with solutions to tackle current challenges facing the industry.

The Group Managing Director of NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, gave the charge while playing host to the Executive members of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), Nigerian Council, in Abuja on Tuesday.

He listed over-supply and the outbreak of the COVID-19 – which has led to a considerable fall in the price of crude oil – as the two major challenges facing the oil and gas industry today. 

“The combination of these two events means that there would be a lull in activities in the oil industry, and if forecasts are right, we may witness very low oil prices throughout the year and that will have a collateral effect on the economy”, the GMD observed.

He, therefore, urged professionals to come up with a blueprint on how to get things done economically in order to minimize the negative impact of the current situation on the industry. 

The GMD said NNPC has repositioned its Research and Development business into an innovation centre that can provide the needed solution and services for the technological development in the petroleum industry.

On his part, President of the SPE, Joe Uwakwe, said the business of his society was to seek technical solutions to industry problems, adding that the present challenges require the development of technology to produce crude oil in a cost-efficient manner.  

He assured that professionals in the industry would do what is necessary to overcome the present challenges.