Huawei Technologies (Nigeria) Limited has been awarded as the ‘Best Technology, Offshore, Oil and Gas Company’ at the ongoing Nigerian International Energy Summit (NIES) in Abuja.

The award was presented to the company at the gala night of the summit which was held at the Banquet of the State House, Abuja.

The award was given in recognition of Huawei’s continued leadership in the ICT space across multiple sectors, and especially in the offshore sub-sector – which is a major focus in recent times - of the oil and gas industry.

The theme of the summit is: “Revitalising the Industry: Future Fuels and Energy Transition.”

Other companies that bagged awards include NLNG, Schlumberger Nigeria, Coleman Wires, and Cables, Huawei Enterprises, Greenville LNG Limited, Samsung Heavy Industries, OVH Energy Marketing Company Limited, Chevron Nigeria Limited, Waltersmith Petroman Company Limited, Shell Nigeria and Production Company, TotalEnergies, and Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board.

Stakeholders in the Nigeria Energy and gas industry spent the earlier part of the event brainstorming on challenges confronting energy transition in the country with a view to finding a solution to it.

Speakers felt the need for all hands to be on deck if Nigeria was indeed willing to change the narrative.

The panelists maintained that if Nigeria was to make her story a successful one, they must reach out to not only the technocrats but also other sectors of the society, particularly the youths. They stressed that the youths must be involved in the development of the solution that would be of more benefit to them than the older generation.

Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, in his speech, noted that in adopting global future fuels, energy-poverty and climate change nexus must be addressed simultaneously and must be geared toward clean and sustainable sources.

“For countries such as Nigeria that is rich in natural resources, but still energy poor, the transition must not come at the expense of affordable and reliable energy for people, cities, and industry.

“On the contrary, it must be inclusive, equitable, and just, which means preserving the right to sustainable development and poverty eradication as enshrined in global treaties such as the Paris accord.

“It is evident that what makes the most sense from the point of view of balancing energy security with environmental sustainability is the use of gas as a transition fuel,” the minister said.

According to him,  it is why the government embraced the resource to help turn around the economy by declaring the year 2021-2030 as Nigeria’s decade of gas.

To demonstrate that, he noted that it was committed to the ‘Decade of Gas’, which had now become an integral part of the Federal Government’s Oil and Gas Road map.

The minister said it had embarked on a critical pathway to ensure that the over 200 Trillion Standard Cubic Feet (TSCF) proven reserves of Natural gas in Nigeria were marshalled to engender domestic economic growth and development beyond 2030.

“Thus, we are driving to make natural gas our dominant primary energy source for use in the medium to Long term.

“Thankfully, our reliable partner, the Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited is not backing out. They are fully backing this initiative all the way,” he said.

“We have also established an LPG Energy Fund in the order of 50 million dollars in its first phase, in partnership with AFREXIMBANK,”

“LPG is set to be part of the destination as it is being used as a precursor for green hydrogen with zero-emission.

“An eventual move to bio-LPG will allow countries like Nigeria to keep existing infrastructure in place, capitalise on already existing supply and distribution chains and reach net-zero at far lower cost,” he said.

The minister promised participants that the outcome of the summit would be presented at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting.