The Chief Executive Officer, Seplat Energy, Mr. Roger Johnson has said the energy company will plant 5 million trees yearly to reduce carbon emissions and produce cleaner energy.
"Our initial target is 5 million trees that is 1 million trees every year for 5 years, but I know if I stop this Programme, 5 years from now, our Chairman will phone on why we are not going up, anyway it is not 1 million trees, it is 5 million trees a year, so we are focusing on 5 states initially Delta, Edo, Delta and 2 northern states which will be disclosed later".
Roger while speaking at the launch of Seplat Tree4Life Launch in Abuja stated that Nigeria needs lots of energy and job opportunities considering her population and as such must ensure energy accessibility and affordability.
Roger noted that with Seplat's aim of carbon emissions reduction, energy poverty must be eradicated in Nigeria and this is what Seplat aims to do by providing accessible and affordable energy.
Chairman Seplat, ABC Orjiako on his part noted that human activities have continued to degrade the environment and Nigeria is duty-bound to protect it.
Explaining, Orjiako noted that "In Nigeria, for example, more than 60% are in darkness, how then can we justify when someone tells us not to invest in fossil fuel which is not appropriate and for us in our company, what we are saying is that it will impact in the way we do business by making sure we ensure efficiency in the way we operate and ensuring that Seplat is delivering 25-30% of gas to Nigeria,"
"The only reason we keep stressing this is that gas is a cleaner form of energy and bring that down to the home where more than 80% of the real energy need is in domestic households which means that it is complete deforestation that is happening in our environment."
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"He noted that deforestation contributes to the effect of climate change but tree planting will help mitigate its impact and ensure the protection of the environment."
"The more you deforest, not only are you encouraging climate change but you keep emitting more carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases into the atmosphere so we then decided that the tree planting exercise aims at putting in check deforestation, protecting our environment and our forest and encourage reforestation such that everywhere you are you are planting trees".
"Tree planting will also impact food security and job creation for the youth and women". He added.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Petroleum, Chief Timipre Sylva encouraged operators in the industry to tap from government opportunities to deepen gas business in the country.
"As a government, we are also creating corridors and pathways that operators in the industry can take to achieve net-zero, the PIA is an enabler for gas business and as you know as a country, we have stated everywhere in the world that our pathway to net-zero is gas".
Sylva maintained that the PIA will enable a lot of gas projects but it hoovers on operators in the industry to also take advantage of the opportunities provided by the PIA to deepen the gas business in Nigeria.
"We are also creating corridors to deepen the gas business, the AKK is a corridor that we are building from the southern part of Nigeria to North, and we are also creating a corridor from the West Africa pipeline to Morocco, these are all opportunities that government is putting in place and should be taken advantage by operators".
