By Fredrick Wright
Seplat Energy Plc and its Board Chairman, Dr. ABC Orjiako have emerged winners at the Energy & Corporate Africa Leadership Award Night/Dinner held last week at the Hilton Post Oak, Houston, Texas, United States for outstanding indigenous performance.
The award was the climax of the Annual Sub-Saharan Africa Oil/Gas Conference that started from 12th August to 13th August with the theme: The Future of Upstream, Advancing Digitalization and Gas Development Options in Sub-Saharan Africa. Dr. Orjiako delivered the keynote address at the event.
Seplat was recognized as the largest indigenous domestic supplier of gas whilst Orjiako won the top indigenous entrepreneur award in the energy sector.
The Leadership Award Night gave an opportunity to profile and celebrate personalities that have helped to stabilize and grow oil/gas business in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Among the recipients of the award were: Chief Timipre Sylva, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, who was conferred with the Africa Leadership Award; Mallam Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) for transformational leadership award, amongst others.
Commenting on the awards, Orjiako, on behalf of the Board, management and staff of the Company, thanked Energy & Corporate Africa, the organisers of the events, for the honour and recognition accorded the company and himself. He expressed the company’s appreciation, saying the awards highlight the hard work and resilience consistently displayed over time.
“Since inception, Seplat has continued to strive for operational excellence and sustainable value creation for all our stakeholders. The awards will continue to propel us to greater achievements,” he assured.
Meanwhile, Orjiako’s insightful keynote address brought to the fore statistics highlighting the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) region as an excellent hub for future upstream growth with opportunities and a ready market for diversification into other allied areas such as refining, Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) and power.
He thus urged Africans and foreign investors alike to harness the growth potential of African developing countries to boost development and global growth. He added that the challenges of SSA present a significant opportunity for those seeking returns.
He also urged energy corporations to show responsibility in neutralising their respective emission footprints and sign up for climate change policies to protect the environment. Likewise, SSA policymakers should embrace programmes that will strike the needed balance.
The Seplat Energy Chairman said that as the world moves toward energy transition with Climate Change/ESG Advocacy/Policy Changes dominating the energy discussion, gas will continue to play an increasingly important role.
He affirmed that the new way of thinking had led the company to change its name from Seplat Petroleum Development Company Plc to Seplat Energy Plc.
He asserted: “Our unique business direction reflects our renewed focus on the entire energy value chain while incorporating cleaner and more sustainable forms of energy to power Nigeria / Africa’s present and future demand.”
