PCTHE Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Dr Folasade Yemi-Esan, on Monday, stated that the ministry is working assiduously with relevant agencies to ensure accuracy in data collection.
The agencies, according to her, are the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), as well as Debt Management Office (DMO), among others.
Dr Yemi-Esan who stated this while declaring open OPEC Data Management Training Workshop held at Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF) in Abuja, therefore, implored OPEC to ensure that the training exposed the participants to more valuable ways of gathering data in Nigeria.
She said it would help the country to plan and make the good decision in the oil and gas industry.
While expressing joy over the OPEC commendation of the credibility of the data presented by the Nigerian government to the organisation, the permanent secretary said this would underscore the purpose of the workshop and as well as be sure of doing the right thing.
The permanent secretary lamented that some stakeholders were yet to appreciate government’s effort at ensuring credible and vast depository of data in Nigeria.
Earlier, the OPEC Governor for Nigeria, Dr Omar Farouk Ibrahim announced that Nigeria was third among member countries in data submission, saying Nigeria has done well in the provision of credible data in the oil and gas sector.
“For some time, our record at data submission and also the accuracy of data hasn’t been good in OPEC. We have always lacked behind most OPEC countries in data submission as well as the accuracy of data that we have been submitting.
“But in the last three years, things have changed, OPEC is very happy with us; the accuracy of our data has improved tremendously. Also, the timeliness of the submission of our data has improved tremendously, I believe that as at today we are the third in the hierarchy of data submission,’’ he announced.
On the training, he said the major focus would essentially be on every part of data from crude oil production, Nigeria’s GDP, oil consumption in gas, refinery run and virtually everything about oil.
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In his welcome address, the Executive Secretary, PTDF, Dr Aliyu Gusua, said the oil and gas sector remained a major economic hub in Nigeria and the world at large, pointing out that credible data was very important in ensuring transparency and accountability in the sector.
According to him, “it is expected that today’s training workshop conducted by the officials of OPEC secretariat will acquaint officers of the ministries and all government agencies involved in the compilation of annual OPEC questionnaire with the requisite knowledge on the functionality of the new template.’’
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