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•Nigeria urged to cooperate with IOCs

Growing fears about the mminent replacement of petroleum with bio-fuels and other alternatives as the main source of energy in the world has been dismissed by Abdalla S. el-Badri, the secretary general, Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries (OPEC). 
According to the OPEC chief , the issue of alternative energy has been on for the past 30 years and yet, the situation has remained the same.
Speaking at a-day media workshop in Abuja, tagged: “Reporting OPEC,” facilitated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in conjunction with OPEC for journalists in Nigeria, El-Badri opined that the global debate about seeking an alternative to oil would not yield result because of the strategic importance of oil. 
The OPEC scribe, who has more than 45 years experience in international oil and gas business, argued that the talk about alternative or independent source of energy was nothing new. “But I want to tell you that oil will remain the dominant energy for the foreseeable future. I have been hearing this from the United States presidents in the last 30 years; at least I am old enough to track this. There is nothing called independent energy. 
“There is no way America will not rely on oil from the Middle East or any other exported oil,” El-Badri explained, while responding to a question on President Barak Obama’s policy on cutting down on America’s dependence on imported oil. 
The OPEC boss therefore urged Nigeria to cooperate with international oil companies (IOCs). 
The advice is coming amid ongoing reforms in the nation’s oil and gas sector, which has caused a lot of contention with the IOCs over the proposed petroleum industry bill (PIB), especially the fiscal regime. He however applauded the ongoing national petroleum reforms, which he described as very important to OPEC and its member countries as a whole.
He said: “This organisation was created to defend our rights against the seven sisters and we’ve been able to do so. We have very successfully defended our rights, we create our national companies and now we are on equal basis, we have contracts with them the way we want. Member countries should really cooperate with the IOCs because they have the finance, they have the technology and we can cooperate together now because we are on equal basis, not as in the past.
“This industry is an international industry; really, you cannot depend on yourself, this deep drilling, there are very few companies that are specialised in it, and so we have to buy that technology. Nigeria or Libya or even Saudi Arabia cannot do everything on their own; they cannot have the seismic technology, they cannot have deep drilling, whether off shore or onshore. 
“So, sometimes you have to rely on the services of other specialised companies who have nothing but this specialty.”  
Furthermore, citizens of POEC member countries have called on the organisation to reduce its dependence on western technology.