Oil, Gas Dev: Expert Advocates EIA, Climate Change Measures

A fellow of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Engr Victor Onoriode Efe Soije, has reiterated that Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and climate change measures would drive oil and gas industries towards higher grounds in respect of social responsibility.
Engr Soije who made the assertion in a paper he presented during a monthly NSE Session in Port Harcourt recently, said these measures could be achieved with little adverse impact on investment, provided the implementation was driven by global best practice rather than compliance.
He stated that consumers of oil and gas products will be willing to pay for environmentally benigo operations just as health conscious shoppers pay for organic food items, stressing that operators would only be required to perform extremely well in all aspects of environmental impact assessment.
In his paper titled, “The Position of Energy Variable and Environmental Impact Assessment in the Success story of Oil and Gas Industries”.The Engineering expert noted that environmental impact assessment in this era of climate change initiatives and key energy variables would facilitate the evolutionary devlopments required for the continued success of oil and gas industries into the future.
He further stated that the environmental impact assessment and climate change measures aimed at achieving social responsibility objectives will help enhance competiveness of oil and gas industries within themselves and with other sources of energy in the energy mix.
Sodje explained that sustaining the success of the oil and gas industries required political, economic and social environment stability, globally, regionally and nationally, and added that competiveness or energy resources is a key factor in the drive to reduce the environmental impact of procuring and using fossil energy sources such as coal and oil with high energy densities.
According to him, there is currently the campaign of global warming, less of fossil fuel, entrance of the renewable energy, carbon capture and many more, stressing that the Environmental Impact Assessment for Project cannot be over emphassised.
Sodje said the extractive Industry, the oil and gas industries that many have periodically predicated that would decline have continue to enjoy sustainable success and growth, attributing it to their adaptability and social variable but also to the fundamentals of these industries.
He further noted that the fundamentals of these industries include resources availability on the planet technical capacity and capability for successful exploration and production in commercial criteria for sustainable profitability and value growth to stakeholders.

Collins Barasimeye