I have been reading former Secretary General of the OPEC, Abdalla Salem El-Badri’s interesting piece, Security of energy supplies inextricably linked with demand. That piece, published in the ‘G-7Germany: The Schloss-Emma Summit’ of June 2015, has said that questions regarding energy security, often have four ready answers. They are issues of reciprocity of supply and demand of oil, foreseeable time horizons, the universality of oil security across all time zones and seasons, and the need to use the security which oil is supposed to provide to enhance dialogue and cooperation.
We will deal with the exposition of these terms right after we examine the theme and focus of a certain high level ministerial meeting which took place on December 1, 2016 in Abuja. It was convened by the collaborative effort of the Nigerian and Ghanaian governments and the UNEP, to examine the ‘negative consequences of the use of high sulphur fuels’, and attempt to adopt a realistic approach to adapting the use of clean fuels by 2020 so that our environment becomes safer. Air pollution was not happening only in Nigeria. Upon realising that the fuels being imported into Ghana had 1000ppm sulphur content, the authorities made a symbolic gesture of sending back a container laden with dirty air in jerry cans back to Antwerp, and backed up their resolve this November 2016 by insisting on taking into Accra only fuels with 50ppm sulphur content. Togo and Benin are hesitant to make the move, and that is because their fuels come from Nigeria, and there is no way they will be insisting on getting fuel from Nigeria if Nigeria is not doing anything about those dirty fuels from Europe.
But part of the recommendations taken by Nigeria, Ghana, Togo Benin and Ivory Coast at that Abuja meeting included the fact that as a region, they would all have to take a stand and insist on fuels with 50ppm sulphur content. For the Nigerian end, things are still a bit intricate. The Nigerian government said that by July 2017, that resolution would be enforced. That apart, the meeting resolved, inter alia, to give refineries waivers to implement an upgrade to enable them meet the proposed 50ppm by 2020. In addition, ministers in the sub-region resolved to work together for uniform refinery standards against vehicular emissions by the magic year 2020.
Therefore what the former OPEC Sec Gen meant by reciprocity of supply and demand of oil, foreseeable time horizons, the universality of oil security across all time zones and seasons, and the need to use the security which oil is supposed to provide to enhance dialogue and cooperation is that for countries like Nigeria, Togo et al, to have oil insecurity, they must begin to look to a future of clean energy and without oil.
When they arose, they issued a communiqué like the Abuja meeting did. Since most of Europe would soon depend absolutely on renewable energy – solar, biomass, wind and hydro power for their electricity needs, part of the plan of the EU Energy Union includes a full implementation of existing legislation and market rules to integrate these renewable into all European markets, and a promotion of more research into renewable energy production and the decarbonisation of the transport sector. ECOWAS should take notice.
- From Bob MajiriOghene Etemiku, Benin, Edo State.