Can you give a brief overview of Green Energy and the company’s role in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria? 

Green Energy was established in 2006 as an integrated energy company. We are the operator of the Otakikpo Marginal field (OML 11), which lies approximately 60 km south east of Port Harcourt, with the operational base at Ikuru town, in Andoni Local government, producing approximately 6,000 bopd since 2017. We have been exporting through a very innovative evacuation system by the use of a 6 km offshore export pipeline to shuttle tanker and onward export to a third party FSO at Ima Terminal.  This evacuation system is very efficient and we have been fortunate to have losses of less than 1%. This is considered a feat in an industry where evacuation losses are over 25%.

The reason the company is called Green Energy is our main focus on being environmentally friendly in all our operations and our sustainability strategy. Our mission is to develop all our assets with gas utilization projects as the backbone of our operations to ensure compliance with the zero-gas flare policy of the Federal Government.  We want to build an integrated energy company and are always open for partnerships.      

How do you believe your clients and host communities perceive Green Energy?

Green Energy has one crude buyer which is Shell, based on our long-term contract and good relationship. We have been fortunate to have very cooperative host communities. Being a fully Nigerian owned and controlled company gives us advantages in community acceptability and the enjoyment of favorable regulatory incentives. We have engaged about 100 direct employees who are all Nigerians, with a significant portion of employees drawn from the host communities.

We feel that we have a moral duty to extend the benefits of our operations to other stakeholders, particularly our host communities. We take as a matter of priority the empowerment and protection of people and the environment through our investments in health, education, sustainable livelihood and economic development, and have committed significant resources to improve the lives of the immediate host and neighboring communities through articulating, formulating, implementing and monitoring our corporate social responsibility interventions. Some of our interventions include infrastructure development, women and youth empowerment, entrepreneurship development, human capacity building through scholarships/bursaries at secondary and tertiary levels, and medical and health outreaches. Green Energy has a partnership with John Hopkins University, which runs health programs in Nigeria for the host communities and we also grant scholarships to students to underscore our focus on human capital development. We have just concluded the 2019/20 award to 340 students on a merit based selection process from the secondary to graduate and post graduate levels. The communities are happy at our developmental efforts.

Can you elaborate on technological advancements in the oil and gas industry in Nigeria?

Green Energy is a small player in the market and we do not really play a role in channeling any technological advancements. In my opinion, there is no new technology that we are deploying. What is however innovative and unique is our business model and approach. We are not an E&P company that sees oil production as an end in itself, but we are set up in such a way as to explore all the opportunities in the oil and gas value chain for the overall benefit of our stakeholders and the Nigerian economy.

Nigeria has challenges with gas utilization. The late president Yar Adua had the idea to establish small power plants to supply local communities. Do you believe this idea is still feasible? 

That is exactly what is being done today. The gas that is produced can generate approximately 40 MW of power. The era of building large power plants is over and the government is putting policies to create an open power market.

One of the challenges with gas to power in Nigeria is the lack of infrastructure. The government is addressing this issue and gas is now being channeled for power and other derivatives .The second is the issue of pricing. Gas has not been priced very well for the past few years. There has also been a problem with tariff collection and companies are forced to sell power to the national grid. I believe that we are now at a stage where issues are being addressed and the environment for gas utilization is improving. Infrastructure is being developed and gas prices have increased. Companies are no longer required to sell to only the national grid and can sell to any willing buyer. 

Does Green Energy have any expansion plans?

Green Energy is trying to scale up our operations from 6,000 bopd to 30,000 bopd. We have been in discussion with international banks to source financing for our expansion plans. We are also talking to a reputable international service provider who will assist in some processes. If all goes well, we will be able to get to financial closure soon. In the future, I can see Green Energy expanding and taking on larger projects. If we increase our production we cannot continue with our current evacuation effort that depends on a third party FSO. We are thus planning to build a one-million barrel crude oil onshore terminal and we will be the first indigenous company to do so in 50 years. We expect the terminal to be completed in Q2 2021. In addition to that, we are investing in a small modular refinery.