Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva, has lauded oil and gas giant, Chevron Nigeria Ltd (Ltd) for its immense contributions to the growth and development of the oil and gas sector in Nigeria.
He made the remarks after CNL, operator of the NNPC/CNL Joint Venture was recognized and presented with two awards for its outstanding performance in the Nigerian oil and gas industry at the dinner and awards night to mark the official opening ceremony of the 2020 edition of the Nigerian International Petroleum Summit (NIPS), at Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja.
Chief Sylva noted that the awards represented the recognition of the contributions of the awardees to the growth and development of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
“The Oil and Gas industry is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy, and anyone who is awarded recognition by the industry is being recognized by Nigeria as a country,” he remarked.
The two awards grabbed by CNL are – the “Award for excellence in environmental sustainability and stewardship” and “Award for the best exhibition booth at NIPS 2019”.
CNL’s Chairman and Managing Director, Jeff Ewing, received the two awards on behalf of the company.
Speaking on the award, Esimaje Brikinn, CNL’s General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs (PGPA), expressed the company’s delight over the recognition and awards.
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He explained that the NNPC/CNL Joint Venture was a major oil and gas producer and has provided substantial revenue to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Federal Government and State Governments for close to 60 years.
He also stated that CNL was happy to be part of the solution to the global environmental issues wherever the company operates through its sound environmental management policy that supports environmental stewardship and sustainable development.
He added that the company was the leading domestic gas supplier and has made great strides in putting out gas flares and increasing gas supply to the domestic market through its integrated gas development projects.
“Chevron is the largest domestic gas supplier in Nigeria,” he said.
Esimaje stated that CNL has also demonstrated its commitment to the ideals of social responsibility and community development in the thematic areas of health, education, economic development.
“CNL has provided thousands of scholarship awards worth billions of naira to Nigerian students. CNL has also established the Scholarship for the Blind to cater for the visually-impaired students,” he noted
He informed that the Global Memorandum of Understanding (GMoU), a community-led participatory partnership model for community engagement and sustainable development, was pioneered by CNL in 2005.
“CNL continues to contribute funding (running into billions of naira) to the Regional Development Committees (RDCs) that represent the communities in its area of operations to execute hundreds of projects in the communities through a governance model that ensures transparency and accountability.
Mr Brikinn also noted the efforts of other Chevron companies in social contributions in Nigeria such as the Star Deep Water Petroleum Ltd (a Chevron company) and the other parties in the Agbami Field, which, he enthused, had also contributed to the sustainable development of Nigeria via interventions in health, education and economic development.
“From 2008 to 2018, the Agbami parties have invested N2.5billion in education infrastructure, N8.4 billion in scholarships and N2.2 billion in the provision of fully equipped modern chest clinics across the country. Over 16,300 students from all the states of Nigeria have benefitted from the Agbami Medical and Engineering Professionals Scholarship.
Among these, an impressive total of 715 have graduated with first-class degrees,” he disclosed.
The event was attended by dignitaries including the Senate President Ahmed Lawan, who was represented by the chairman, Senate committee, Petroleum Upstream, Senator Albert Bassey Akpan, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Chief Timipre Sylva, Petroleum Ministers from other African countries as well as representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, the Group Managing Director, NNPC, Mallam Mele Kolo Kyari, industry regulators and other captains of the Nigerian oil and gas industry.
