THE United Kingdom (UK) has restated its commitment to Nigeria’s drive to attain energy security.
Acting British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Peter West, yesterday disclosed the position of his country during a workshop aimed at improving operations of the oil and gas sector of the economy.
According to him, Britain’s support would come through the Joint Nigeria-UK Energy Working Group established in 2008 to foster greater co-operation between the two countries on energy security.
Senior officials of regulatory agencies including the Department for Petroleum Resources (DPR) and the Petroleum Product and Pricing Regulatory Authority (PPRA) took part in the workshop which was organised in part to find solutions to the perennial energy crisis in the country.
The workshop was opened by Petroleum Resources Minister, Dr Rilwanu Lukman, who pledged a meaningful re-engineering of the sector in order to end impediments to the delivery of petroleum products nationwide.
West said that the “UK remained committed to working with their Nigerian counterparts through this new effort that we collectively see as a project.” The project is funded through the UK’s Strategic Programme Fund.
The project is the outcome of an offer of UK technical assistance made during the first joint UK/Energy Working Group meeting on November 26, 2008. This followed a request from the Federal Government for help in training and capacity building as the nation embarked on an ambitious programme of reforms of the Nigerian energy sector.
The UK’s support is being coordinated by IPA Energy and Water Economics Ltd., a UK-based energy consultancy. Ian Benfield, Associate Director of IPA, will over the course of next week deliver the first two training courses starting with an “introduction to regulation.”
This would be followed by “Establishing a regulatory authority” course with a backup review by senior staff of the new regulatory agencies including the Nigeria Petroleum Assets Management Agency (NAPAMA), the National Petroleum Inspectorate (NPI) and APPPRA. The entire programme will span the next six months.