Dr. Ainojie Alex Irune, Executive Director of Oando PLC and COO of Oando Energy Resources, has cautioned African countries against a hasty shift towards the 30-year Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 vision, advocating instead for extracting every molecule of oil and using natural gas to drive sustainable development.

He therefore described Africa’s hasty shift towards green energy, as a disingenuous approach.

The President/CEO of Oando Clean Energy Limited shared these views during a panel discussion on “Navigating a Sustainable Future for Independent Producers” at the 23rd Nigeria Oil Gas Conference and Exhibition (NOG Energy Week) in Abuja on Wednesday.

Dr. Ainojie argued that Africa, with its abundant energy resources but widespread poverty, cannot afford a hasty transition to renewable energy.

“We have always felt it was too soon for us as Africans with huge amounts of energy resources, but we exist in deep poverty,” he said.

“We can’t transition ourselves to further poverty. We were asked to march on to a 30-year Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 vision aimed at achieving universal access to modern energy services by 2030 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“We committed ourselves to the vision of turning all of our energy resources to renewable energy, unfortunately, we have no business latching on to that dream,” he said.

The President/CEO of Oando Clean Energy Limited emphasized the relevance of a balanced energy mix and noted that oil and gas would still play significant roles in the future.

Dr. Ainojie stated, “At Oando, we no longer feel pressured by the energy transition push; instead, we see an acceleration in our crude oil extraction.

“Therefore, African countries need to extract every molecule of crude oil from beneath the earth’s surface and use natural gas to champion the continents towards sustainable development.”

Highlighting Oando PLC’s commitment to supporting the African economy through renewable energy projects, Dr. Irune said, “While extracting oil, we can harness solar, wind, geothermal, and hydro in ways that support our economy,”

He mentioned that Oando’s Clean Energy Division is engaged in several projects, including transportation, solar energy, waste-to-value, wind, and geothermal energy in collaboration with NNPCL Limited.

Dr. Ainojie explained that “Oando Plc has made significant progress in the transport sector project due to Africa’s logistics-based economy,”

“We are also involved in solar energy, waste-to-value projects, wind, and geothermal energy. One of our advanced projects is the electric vehicle initiative with the Lagos state government, where we are moving to deploy 100 buses after completing the pilot phase.”

Dr. Ainojie underscored the importance of ecosystem development, local capacity building, and knowledge transfer.

“We believe in contributing to ecosystem development, learning, and local capacity building.

“It’s essential to build a base that allows us to explore our oil and deploy capital to increase the size of these projects in a manageable way,” he said.

Addressing the conclusion and pending cases on asset transactions from divestment programmes by International Oil Companies (IOCs), Dr. Ainojie also identified Nigeria’s biggest challenge as developing and applying the Petroleum Industry Act for the first time.

“The PIA has, for the first time, been taken through its rigor with elements of the Petroleum Act,” he noted.

Dr. Ainojie emphasized the importance of midstream activities in the oil and gas industry.

According to him, “We have no choice after acquiring those oil and gas assets but to adopt integrated operations. Oando PLC has moved its integration into clean energy.”